Die Happy
by Blu Rose
Summary: The approaching death of Rin's sickly wife leads to his son dealing with a demon who ensures unhappy people a happy death in exchange for their soul. Can he protect them both, or do they even want his protection? (Rated M for Mature themes-just to be safe.)
1. The Story of a Girl

**I have wanted to do a multi-chapter Blue Exorcist fic for a while now. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And then I wound up starting this during my trip home for New Year's, where there was no Internet. This isn't intended to be a very long series—three chapters at the very least. In fact, I'm wondering if I'll even update it past the first chapter. Well, let's get this train wreck started.**

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Blue Exorcist series. She only owns this fic._

_Series summary: The approaching death of Rin's sickly wife leads to his son dealing with a demon who ensures unhappy people a happy death in exchange for their soul. Can he protect them both, or do they even want his protection?_

_Chapter summary: Kazuki Okumura's sickly mother, the one person in his family he considered closest to normal, starts to tell him a story about a girl who made a shady deal for happiness._

**X-X-X**

**Die Happy **

_#1_**:**_ A Story of a Girl_

"How was your birthday?"

"I wouldn't know. I didn't stay."

"Kazuki."

15-year old Kazuki Okumura, the spitting image of his father at that age, sucked his teeth in disdain and looked out the window. "I told him I didn't want a party, or presents, or cake, and he didn't listen to me—as usual."

"You know it was only his way of trying to make you feel better and get your mind off of things."

Kazuki continued to frown and leaned in closer towards the hospital bed. "That's like saying it's the thought that counts when you give someone you _know_ has cat allergies a _kitten_ for a gift. And anyway," his hand took hold of his mother's as he continued, "nothing could make me _not_ think of you. Especially not that dumb old man." He leaned back. "It's not fair… Why are _you_ the one who has to…? Why can't it be him? It oughta be him."

His mother smiled. "You know you don't mean that."

"Don't say that! I know myself more than anyone else!" Kazuki snapped. "…C-can I just read you this week's Jump? I don't wanna talk about him anymore."

"Actually, I want to save that for a little later. Right now, I want to tell you a story."

Kazuki arched an eyebrow. "A…story? Are…are you really up to it?"

"I know myself more than anyone else, too," she said with a smile. "Will you please listen?" The boy nodded timidly. His mother took a deep breath. "Alright then. Once upon a time, in a little town in the country of an island just off the coast of Japan, there was a girl. The people of the town feared and hated the girl because she was cursed. The girl was cursed because her family was cursed. The family was cursed because many, many years ago, their ancestor performed a sinister ritual. They starved a dog and trapped its demonic spirit into servitude—an inugami, they call it. In exchange for food, the inugami did its master's bidding, no matter how foul. Money, land, and even women—it would give its master whatever they desired. As its master's family grew and he passed away, the inugami began to serve whichever of his descendants it wanted. Some used its power for selfish and greedy purposes, others didn't. But all fed it, because starving the demon would cause it to kill its master and set it loose to ravage the land."

"Poor puppy… Wait, I thought this was a story about a girl?" Kazuki asked, staring at his mother in confusion.

"I'm getting there! So, the girl was hated because of her family's history as inugami owners. She had no friends, except maybe the inugami, and her mother, who was the most recent master of the inugami. And then, one day, the most miraculous of things happened…the cutest guy in her class talked to her!"

Her son stared at her apathetically. "If this is going to turn out to have a plot outta Shojo Beat…"

"It's not! Anyway, long story short: cute boy talks to cursed girl, says he thinks she's pretty and asks her out. Cursed girl is thrilled because all she wanted was to be a normal girl, and normal girls went out on dates with boys. But when she went out with him, he…she…" Kazuki's mother sighed and rubbed her eye. "I can't put this delicately, so forgive me if this disgusts you, honey: the cute boy raped the cursed girl while his friends recorded her being sexually demeaned," she spoke flatly.

Kazuki stared in surprise at her. "WHAT?! You were—?!"

"I wasn't raped! I _said_ a cursed girl was!" The mother held her hand over her mouth as she began to cough. After a few seconds, she stopped and began running a hand through her hair. "Anyway, when the entire thing was revealed to the town, things became twisted around to make it seem that the girl was the villain who used dark magic or something to seduce some poor boys into doing perverse things. The girl's mother did not take that kindly. So she sicced the inugami on them. One boy was horribly scarred from bites and scratches, another was mauled in such a manner that he became paralyzed, and the cute boy responsible for stealing the cursed girl's virginity had been driven insane and put in an insane asylum. A dark part of the cursed girl was happy to be avenged, but another part of her was sad that it had to happen."

"Why? They were bastards and deserved worse than what they got." As his mother sighed, Kazuki stared at her intensely. "Has… Does Dad know?"

"About some stranger he doesn't know getting raped? No. Moving on, sometime after the girl had been avenged, her mother died—found dead in a river, supposedly of drowning. Some people said it was the inugami that killed her, others said it was probably someone connected to the boys who were her victims. The daughter thought that maybe…she did it to herself because she couldn't live with what she had done, or the people in town who hated her, or the stigma of being an inugami's owner. And after a while, she started to feel that way herself."

Kazuki opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again. "…Wh-what happened then?"

"Well, she was going to jump off of the bridge and into the river to hopefully drown when something disturbing happened: fire. Lots of fire. In the air. _Everywhere_ around her. And then a _man_ appeared before her from the fire. So she screamed bloody murder because after her experience, anything of the humanoid male persuasion _scared_ her, and being on fire made him _worse_. Burning man says: _'Don't die with pain and regret. An angel has arrived to save you.'_"

Kazuki scoffed. "Angels don't exist. They're just like gods. There's only demons."

"Exactly, but the cursed girl, who didn't have any knowledge regarding demons outside of her cursed dog, believed what he said, and burning man was convinced that he was angelic. He introduced himself as Avnas, an angel seeking to regain his place in heaven by helping those with misfortunes to die happy. In exchange, he took the souls of those he helped upon their death. That was his offer to her: _'I'll make you happy to be alive up to the moment you die, and then your soul is mine.' _

'_What's the difference how I die?'_ she asked.

Burning man says _'Die with regrets and you'll become a ghost like your dog. Become a ghost and eventually you'll envy the living. Envy will turn to hate. Hate will turn to violence. Then you'll be the monster everyone says you are. But die happy and that won't happen.'_

'_Then I'll just make myself happy,' _she told him_._ And that made him laugh. Do you know _why_, Kazuki?"

The teenager shrugged. "I dunno. He probably said _'if it were easy to die happy, why are you going to kill yourself?'_ or something…"

His mother nodded. "Exactly. Then he went on to say _'I could let you have whatever it is you think will make your life happier. You want money? Fame? Love? Friends? I can give you all that if you think it will make you feel better.'_ You know what the cursed girl asked for? All she wanted was her mother back, because that was the only human in the world who cared that she existed. But of course, Avnas said it wasn't possible: her soul had moved on and her body was cremated—nothing to bring back at all. But if it was about being alone, he was more than happy to become a guardian angel in the most literal of senses. He even went the distance, changing his shape to something more womanly to make the cursed girl more comfortable about their living arrangement."

Kazuki stared in confusion. "You—! I mean, _she_ lived with a demon?"

"Who knows why she agreed to it? Maybe it was because she was stupid enough to think Avnas was an angel, or she was vulnerable and lonely, and she was always desperate for human contact…well, _humanoid_ contact."

The teenage boy continued to stare at his mother. "How? _Why_? You of all people…! I thought you were the normal one in our family, but you're no different…" Kazuki spoke dejectedly. "Does Dad know about this? He'll flip if he doesn't…"

"Why would I tell him about a stranger? I figured you'd like to hear my story."

Kazuki groaned and held a hand over his eyes. "Mom… Be honest to me." He lowered his hand. "You're the cursed girl who lived with a demon."

"No, I'm not."

"I won't be mad at you if you say the truth! I'll understand, because…because if it was me, I'd have done the same!" Before his mother could reply, a beeping noise sounded in his jeans pocket. He pulled out a cell phone and stared at it in disdain. "Dad's calling. I thought he gave up already…" Kazuki looked at his mother and held her hand. "You don't want me to leave yet, do you?"

"You should go home before Dad gets worried. I'll be here tomorrow. And I can tell you the rest of my story."

"…Yeah. Sure. If it'll make you feel better." Kazuki got up from his seat and gave his mom a kiss on the cheek. "I'll just read you this week's Jump next time."

His mother smiled brightly. "I'd really like that."

**X-X-X**

Kazuki opened the front door of his house with one hand, the other grasping the comic magazine he bought along to read to his mother. Not bothering to announce his presence, he quietly closed the door behind him and began to make his way up the stairs. He wasn't even halfway up to stairs before a voice called out, "Kazuki." The teenager sighed and turned around to see his father, Rin Okumura, standing at the bottom of the stairs. His loose hair had been pinned up with a hairpin and he was wearing an apron over his clothes. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"I was visiting Mom."

"You couldn't tell me that?! I've been calling you nonstop since you left—which was rude, by the way, to your family! What sort of person runs out on their own birthday party?!"

Kazuki sighed and rubbed his temples. "The sort of person who didn't _want_ a party in the first place. I _told_ you I didn't want to do anything for my birthday, but as usual, you ignored me and did the opposite of what I wanted."

"You _never_ said that to me!"

"Yes, I _did_! Ugh, just forget it!" The teenager snapped as he turned around and resumed going up the stairs. Or he would've if his father hadn't managed to come up, grab him, and carry him off to the dining area downstairs. Of course, it wasn't like Kazuki didn't try to break free, but despite his appearance, his father could probably beat up professional bodybuilders three times his size with ten times his muscle mass.

Rin sat Kazuki down at the table, directly in front of a cake. The phrase _'Happy Birthday!'_ had been written in frosting above a cartoonish face that appeared to be the birthday boy. The son glared at the cake while his father began placing candles on it. There was just enough space for both the message and the drawing remained unmarred by any candles to Rin's delight. He lit the candles, then clapped his son on the back. "Alright, now make a wish! Sooner you blow 'em out, the sooner the cake gets cut!"

"…I hate cake."

"…Fine. You don't have to eat the cake. Just make a wish." Kazuki took a deep breath and blew out the candles. He stood up abruptly and began to leave when his father grabbed him by the shoulder. "Wait a second! What'd you wish for?"

"I wish Mom was here instead of you." After saying that, the teenager hurried upstairs and left his father staring at a wall sadly.

**X-X-X**

"Alright… That's the last of 'em." Rin gave a breath of relief as he wrapped up the last piece of sliced cake in foil paper. He figured that he may as well give some of the cake to those who bothered to come to the party—a way of saying _'I'm sorry for the crappy behavior of my son'._ The blue-haired man growled under his breath as made his way over to the table, the tail behind him curling up in irritation. He looked at the hunk of cake that remained for his family, staring hard at the smiling face made in the frosting. "…I wasn't in the wrong here," he muttered as he picked up the plate the cake was on and walked over to the fridge. "Even if he didn't want a party, he could've respected the trouble I went through for this instead of running off like that!" He opened the fridge and slid the cake inside. Rin stared at the cake for a long while before he decided to close the fridge door and head upstairs to his son's room.

Luckily for Rin, when he went upstairs, Kazuki's door was unlocked. He usually locked it when he was upset. That was a good sign, right? The blue-haired man opened the door and stuck his head inside. Kazuki was nowhere to be found. Was he in the bathroom or something? Rin stepped inside and took a look around. His son was on summer vacation, which he usually spent most of his time indoors to his father's annoyance. But since his mother went to the hospital, his room became frighteningly tidier since he spent a lot of his free time with her, the rest at his part-time job, and hardly any at home…or rather, with his father. Rin noticed the laptop sitting open on top of Kazuki's desk, and enlarged on the screen was an odd-looking symbol. The respectful father in him wanted to respect his son's privacy and not get him any angrier than he already was. His curiosity, however, won out over that, and he soon found himself walking over to the desk.

On the screen was an odd-looking symbol inside of a circle. He didn't know what to call the marking, but the letters A, M, and Y were within the circle. His curiosity still not sated, Rin clicked a button and went back to the previous page. "The 58th Spirit in the Ars Goetia is Amy, or Avnas. He's a Great President of Hell, who appears first in the form of a blazing fire, then in the form of a man. He teaches astronomy and liberal arts, gives excellent familiars, incites positive reactions from rulers, and reveals treasures. He rules over 36 demon legions. According to one source, he was of both the order of angels and powers, and hopes in vain to return to the seventh heaven after twelve centuries. …Why is Kazuki reading stuff like this?"

"None of your business."

"Ah!" Rin jumped and spun around to see Kazuki. The teenager's hair was wet and he'd changed into his pajamas. "H-hey! I wanted to ask what you want for dinner."

"I'm not hung—" Kazuki was interrupted by the growling of his stomach.

The father smiled. "Since you don't want cake, I'll make you a birthday dinner."

"Enough of the birthday crap! Don't change the subject!" The son snapped. "Who do you think you are, looking at my stuff like that?!"

"I'm making sure you aren't looking at anything dirty or perverted!"

"So you think I'm a _pervert_?!"

"No, of course not! A-anyway, why are you reading about demons?!"

Kazuki snorted. "People don't have to be exorcists or demon-worshipping weirdoes to wanna read about demons."

Rin looked skeptical. "Says the kid who says he hates anything related to demons."

"Just stay out of my business, okay?" The blue-haired boy asked as he walked around his father and turned off the laptop. "What does it matter to you what I like to read?"

"Just don't do anything stupid like trying to summon a demon from 'how-to' steps on the Internet. Sometimes they get it right." And he'd worry if his son wanted to be involved with some demon president—whatever that meant. Rin stared at his son for a few seconds before wrapping his arms around the boy in a hug. Kazuki shouted in surprise and began to fight against Rin's embrace, but the older Okumura's strength allowed him to keep a firm hold on the boy. "I know it's been hard with Mom in the hospital. But I'm here for you when you need me, Kazuki. We'll get through this together, okay?" He let the boy go and smiled. "I'll make you your favorite for dinner, alright?" He left before his son could even make an argument.

Kazuki frowned and narrowed his eyes. "You're not the one I want to be here…"


	2. Lying is Hereditry

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own Blue Exorcist. She only owns this fic._

_Chapter Summary:_ _In which Rin learns his wife's secret and Kazuki learns his father's._

_Warning!: This series occasionally mentions of rape, suicidal thoughts, and other depressing subjects. If any of this disturbs you, you might wanna read with caution or not at all._

**X-X-X**

**Die Happy**

_#2: Lying is Hereditary_

"Angels or malakhim, i.e. the _'plain'_ angels, are the lowest of the angelic hierarchy and the most recognized. They are the ones most concerned with the affairs of living things. There are many kinds of Angels with different functions, but all are sent as messengers between mankind and heaven... Powers or Authorities appear to collaborate in power and authority with the Principalities, or Rulers. The Powers are the bearers of conscience, keepers of history, and warrior angels created to be loyal to God. Their duty is to oversee distribution of power among mankind. Some believe that no Power has fallen from grace, but some believe that Satan was the Chief of the Powers before he fell."

Kazuki groaned and leaned back in his chair. He spun around, staring up at the ceiling as he went over it in his head. Avnas was thought to be an Angel or a Power. In demonology, Angels were demons associated with Lucifer, the King of Light. Angels' god was Satan, God of Gehenna. But then again, it could have been wrong. The common image of angels was kind, loving, blonde people—not demons who worked for Satan. But still…the Ars Goetia said Avnas was a _fallen_ angel. So did that make him good, or just a different kind of evil? Did that even matter when he took people's souls as a wage? Just how desperate _was_ his mother?

The sound of his bedroom door suddenly opening almost made Kazuki fall off his chair. It turned out to be his father, poking his head into the room once again. "Hey. Just coming to say good night."

"Good night, then," Kazuki responded apathetically. The teenager turned back to his computer and began closing web pages before his dad could do anymore snooping.

Rin's hand gripped the door knob tightly, but he didn't express his annoyance with his son's coldness. "By the way, we're going to visit your mom tomorrow."

Kazuki arched an eyebrow. "_We_?"

"It'd make your mom happy if we were all together for a change."

"…Fine."

Rin stared in surprise. He had expected his son to be more vehement about going together. "Alright. We'll leave in the morning."

The moment after Rin left, Kazuki groaned. If his mother was hesitant to admit her little story was true to _him_, she probably wouldn't say a thing in front of his father. But he needed more information about that Avnas thing before it was too late…

**X-X-X**

The ride to the hospital was uneventful and unnervingly quiet to Rin. A part of him wanted to ask about the whole Avnas thing from the night before, but that would only get Kazuki upset. And it wasn't as if Rin could remember the name of every single demon in existence. He only wondered why Kazuki wanted to learn about it in the first place. The boy usually avoided things related to demons, so to suddenly get an interest in them was suspicious.

"Why do you keep looking at me?" Rin flinched and looked away from Kazuki. The teenager arched an eyebrow and looked at the sealed plastic bowl on the dashboard with a slice of cake inside. "And why'd you bring cake? If you think you're gonna use Mom to force me to eat that—"

"I brought it for Mom."

"You're giving a sick woman a piece of cake," the dark-haired boy spoke flatly. "That'll just make her condition worse."

"I doubt it will. And I promised her that she could try some of the cake I made. She's probably tired of eating only what the hospital tells her to." Rin still remembered the look on her face when she pleaded for him to bring her some cake. He honestly couldn't say no. "So we'll hide the cake from her doctor and the rest of the hospital staff for Mom, right?"

"To make her sicker."

"To make her _happier_."

"…Fine."

**X-X-X**

"I understand how anxious you get sitting in this room, Satori-san. But that doesn't mean you can just leave your room to go up on the roof."

Satori Okumura sat in her hospital bed, her brown eyes looking forward listlessly as she tugged at her long dark hair. "Uh-huh."

"Especially not in the middle of the night. You wouldn't want your condition to get any worse, would you?" The woman shook her head, not really paying much mind to the man in front of her. The doctor was about to say more when the door opened and Rin walked into the room with his hands behind his back, followed by Kazuki. "Oh! Hello, Okumura-san."

"Rin! And Kazuki! Wh-what a surprise to see you together…" Satori trailed off as her husband approached the bed and bent over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Good morning, Tanaka-sensei," Rin said with a smile as Kazuki sat down in the chair at Satori's bedside.

"I'm actually glad you're here. There's something I'd like to talk to you about…outside?" The doctor gestured towards the door.

"Okay." Rin glanced back at his wife and son. "Be back soon."

After the two men left the room, Kazuki moved the chair closer to his mother's bed. "Quick, before they come back! Tell me about Avnas!" He hissed.

"Does that mean you want to hear more of my story?" Satori asked.

"No, I want to know about your deal. Is there a way to stop him from taking your soul?"

"…What makes you think I know something like that?" The teenager groaned and buried his face in his hands. His mother looked at him sadly. "There, there. I'll tell you a little more of my story to make you feel better, okay? Now, where did I leave off…?"

"…Avnas appeared before you and started to live with you."

"Yes—well, no. But that's close enough. After her failed suicide attempt, the cursed girl began to live with _another_ non-human being. She somehow managed to continue going to school in her little town in the countryside, but she wasn't exactly happy. How could she be after everything that happened? During those days, all she could've wanted was to leave her hometown and the painful past behind her. Freedom appeared in the form of college."

Kazuki arched an eyebrow. "College?"

"Yeah, you see…cursed girl didn't want to go to the sort of local colleges that people in her hometown would likely go to. She wanted to go somewhere _very, very far_ away from her past. Avnas, dead set on making the cursed girl as happy as she could possibly be, suggested going to one of the best colleges in Japan—"

"True Cross."

Satori frowned. "This is _my_ story, remember? I tell it!"

"Yeah, yeah! Just hurry!"

"All Avnas said was that it was a school you got into if you were really smart or really rich. The cursed girl was a B-average student at best, so Avnas managed to somehow get enough money to pay her tuition fee. She didn't expect to make any friends there—she couldn't even enroll in time to get a dorm on campus, but she didn't mind. She just wanted to get through it all without any problems. And then she met a boy."

"Dad," Kazuki stated.

"This isn't about Mommy and Daddy. This is about a cursed girl who met a cute, good-looking guy with a nice ass and a great smile and a silky voice—"

"_Mom_."

"—who tried to rape her." Satori fell silent as Kazuki stared at her in surprise. As the boy looked at the door in shock, trying to imagine his own father doing such a thing, his mother continued, "It wasn't his fault, though. It turned out he was possessed by an incubus—a demon she wished she never knew existed. See, they like sex, and while Mr. Incubus could've simply possessed her while she slept and kill her silently, he wanted to have _fun_ in a _human_ body and _do it_— I am so sorry if this is grossing you out, sweetheart."

The teenager swallowed his spit. "How many times are you going to be raped in this story? I mean, isn't it painful talking about it?"

The dark-haired woman stared in confusion. "I wasn't raped. Neither was the cursed girl. She was actually saved in time by a guy she vaguely knew from some of her classes—the guy who fell asleep often and always asked her for her notes. Only now he was on fire—blue fire. Swinging a sword like a madman. The cursed girl just stared in stupid awe as she watched something that looked like a fight scene from an anime—she didn't even notice the other two helping him. At the end of it all, when Mr. Incubus was dealt with, she could only ask the boy with the blue flames if he was an angel. He blushed and said, _'No. I sit next to you in class. My name is Rin.' _She said, _'I know. My name is Satori.'_"

"So you admit it!" Kazuki snapped, pointing an accusing finger at his mother.

Satori arched an eyebrow. "Admit what? I have no creativity when it comes to naming my characters?" Ignoring her son, she continued, "So after that incident, they started to talk to each other. Long story short: they got close, and eventually, they fell in love. This did not make Avnas happy in the least. You see, among the little secrets that Rin told Satori—being an exorcist, being half-demon, having only one other girlfriend before her—he didn't say _what_ sort of demon he was descended from. Satori thought he was an angel like Avnas, what with the fire and all... Nope. Satan."

Kazuki lowered his hand from his face. "…I'm sorry?"

"Rin was the son of Satan. Satori didn't need to be an exorcist to know that Satan was a _really bad demon_. Avnas said she should stop seeing him for her own safety. Because, according to him, Satan's children weren't people it was safe to associate with. It wouldn't lead to a happy, normal life that you could live and die thinking you had no regrets. It'd be minus all of that, save the part about dying. But Satori figured, _'So? I've done the same.'_ She didn't tell him about owning an inugami or making a contract with an angel who took her soul as payment."

The door slammed open with enough force to bang against the wall. Rin stood in the doorway, gritting his teeth in anger. "YOU WHAT?!"

"The way Satori figured, the day Rin told her that himself, she would tell him those things about her. But he couldn't even do that the day he proposed to her."

"Because it didn't matter! _You_ said it didn't matter if I told you!" Rin exclaimed as he approached the bed. "Where we came from didn't matter! What matters is that you gave your soul to a _demon_! _That_ is something you tell your spouse!"

"Why?"

The half-demon growled under his breath and grabbed his wife's shoulders. "So I can _protect_ you! So I can save you!"

"And that's why Satori didn't say anything. Because Rin is the sort who always comes running to her rescue when it comes to demons. She made a contract, and Avnas delivered for the most part. Siccing her husband on him would seem ungrateful."

"Bullshit! This is your _life_ we're talking about! Is _this_ why you didn't want to get the treatments? Because of some stupid contract?!"

"But despite all the lies between them, Satori hoped that they could have a long, happy marriage together."

"Don't change the subject! _Talk to me_. Let me help you!" Rin stilled as he heard the door slam. He turned to look at the shut door and just noticed that Kazuki was no longer in the room. "Ah, fuck…!" He looked back at his wife. "…Why did you have to tell him that? This isn't the way you should break news like that to someone, especially not someone like Kazuki!"

"So you'd rather have me lie to my only child when I'm dying?! I've been doing that for—!" Satori raised her voice, but quickly began to cough. She covered her mouth with her hand, lowering it after her coughing fit was over. She stared at the bit of blood in the palm of her hand and sniffled. "I don't want to die with regrets, Rin. I want to tell him, even if he hates me for it. Don't you feel the same?"

The blue-haired man bit the inside of his cheek and balled up his fists. "…I have to find Kazuki before he does something stupid," he mumbled as he turned to leave. He was stopped when his wife leaned forward and grabbed onto his arm.

"You're not going to do anything stupid either, are you?"

"I…I have to go." Rin slipped his hand out of Satori's grip and left the room. Once he was in the hallway, he glanced at the bit of blood smeared onto his arm and cringed.

**X-X-X**

Rin wasn't sure _how_ long he spent trying to find him. He wasn't able to get through on his phone, and he wasn't at any of the few places he knew the teen liked to hang out at. He even found himself calling Yukio and Shiemi, hoping that maybe he was blowing off steam at their place, but no such luck.

"Alright. If he comes over to your house, do whatever you can to make him stay there and call me. Thanks again, Shiemi." Rin hung up the cellphone and, with a groan, buried his face in his hands. "Please, God, let him be okay…" He looked up in time to see Kazuki run across the street, looking around in a panic. In a flash, the half-demon's worries were forgotten and he found himself getting out of the car to tackle his son to the ground, not even caring about traffic or passersby. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

For a brief moment, Kazuki's face showed fear. His expression soon contorted into one of anger. "None of your damn business!" Rin's reaction was to smack the boy's head. "You can do that as much as you want! I ain't telling you a thing!"

The father's eye twitched in annoyance. Growling, he got on his feet while lifting Kazuki up into the air. He tossed the teenager over his shoulder and walked over to the car, ignoring the way his son pounded against his back, kicked, and screamed curses. Rin chucked the boy into the backseat and slammed the door shut before climbing into the driver's seat as well. "We're gonna talk about this at home."

The son snorted and began glaring out the window as traffic began to move once more.

**X-X-X**

Much earlier, Kazuki had been standing on the roof of a building, leaning on the fence that had been built around the ledges. "They're both jerks…and _liars_…and _cursed_…and…_Satan spawn_. Why couldn't I have been born in a normal family? To a mom that doesn't make deals with demons and a dad that's just _human_?" He looked listlessly at the street below and pushed his body up against the fence some more. "It'd be so easy to make it so I don't have to deal with them or their nonsense anymore…"

Just then, a flame burst to life behind him with a loud crackled. The dark-haired teen jumped at the sound and turned around in time to see the flame grow and explode into more flames. The flames eventually came together and formed a humanoid shape. The flaming being reached a hand out to Kazuki and spoke in an echoing voice, "Do not despair. An angel has come to you in your time of need…"

"An angel. A great blaze calling itself an angel…" The teenager mumbled to himself. He gulped and continued to stare in awe as the fire began to fade away. It revealed a man who looked like someone you would run across on the street: dressed up in a lime green jacket over a purple shirt and black jeans. His short red hair and gold-colored eyes would make him stick out in crowd, as would his slightly pointed ears.

"My name is Avnas," the redheaded man introduced himself with a casual smile, despite his theatric entrance. "I've come to you in your time of need, Kazuki Okumura. Just like you wanted, yes?"

The demon took a step towards the boy. Kazuki's first reaction was to step back, only to realize that he had his back against the fence already. "St-stay back! I'm warning you!"

"About _what_, exactly? You're just a human. A human unfortunate to be born into a mess he'd rather have no knowledge of, Kazuki-kun."

"Don't call me that!" The blue-haired boy snapped. "H-how do you know my name?! Have you been spying on me?!"

"Spying? I don't spy. I only look over poor unfortunate souls who look as if they've had enough of life. How long have you been questioning the point of living now?" Kazuki froze as Avnas came close enough to him to pat him on the head. "But you don't want me here to make your life worth living. You want me to save your mother's…don't you?"


	3. All for Her Sake

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Blue Exorcist/Ao no Exorcist series._

_Chapter Summary: Rin and Kazuki go about their own ways to try and save their wife and mother, and both find themselves dealing with demons in the process._

_Warning: This story makes mild mentions to rape, suicide, and some other disturbing things. Brace yourself as you read._

**X-X-X**

**Die Happy**

_#3: All for Her Sake_

"But you don't want me here to make _your _life worth living. You want me to save your mother's…don't you?"

Kazuki cleared his throat and tried to steel his nerves. Even the people on the internet who knew next to nothing about demons said it was important to be strong-willed and confident when striking deals with demons. "I want you to leave my mother's soul alone."

Avnas's smile faded. "Come again?"

"My mother's name is—"

"Satori Okumura, formerly Satori Yoshida. I know who she is." Avnas ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I liked playing guardian to her. Well, until she decided to throw her lot in with Satan spawn. Now look where she is: sick and dying in a hospital of, what, lung cancer?"

The dark-haired boy grit his teeth. "If you like her so much, why don't you _do_ something?!"

The redheaded demon poked Kazuki in the forehead with a finger. "Just because I like her, that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore the facts. We made a deal: I make her happy and she gives me her soul."

"She's _dying_ and in _pain_! She's not happy like that, so you can't take her soul!"

"Then I'll just have to do what I do with any tarnished soul I get: burn it."

The teenager's eyes widened. "What?! Y-you can't do that!"

"Y-yes, I can! All I have to do is find the _riiight_ temperature…" Avnas imitated an explosion as he made a gesture with his hands to match. "Happy or not, her soul belongs to me the moment she passes." The demon turned around and began to walk to the door. "If that's all we have to discuss—"

"I WON'T BE HAPPY IF SHE DIES!" Kazuki screamed loudly. The volume of his voice caused birds to fly away from nearby rooftops, and also made Avnas stop in his tracks. "You want my soul, too, right? That's why you've been interested in me. I'll be able to die happy if you promise to save my mom!"

Unseen by Kazuki, the redheaded demon smirked. Avnas turned back around, wearing a surprised expression. "Would you really do that? After she's hidden such startling truths from you for all these years?"

"My mom is the only person I think I can stand anymore, because I liked to believe we thought the same way. Even after everything she told me…even if I'm mad at her, I…" Kazuki's eyes began to water. "I wouldn't be able to stand living anymore if she died."

"How sad…and overdramatic." The demon hummed in a seemingly thoughtful manner. It barely took a second for him to say, "Sold." Smiling proudly, Avnas pointed at the dark-haired boy. "Kazuki Okumura, if it will allow you to die happy with no regrets, I'll save your mother for that wretched disease. And in exchange, your soul will be mine the day you die." He then transformed into a ball of fire that faded away, leaving Kazuki alone before he could ask any questions.

Minutes later, after wandering back onto the streets in a daze, Kazuki thought about what he'd done. He'd just made a deal with a demon. A demon that got its own page in an ancient demon-summoning instructional manual. It was the sort of thing he was raised to _not_ do. But if his mom got better as a result, then it was worth, right? Her life mattered more than his anyway. That's what he was thinking his dad tackled into him from out of nowhere and then threw him into the car.

**X-X-X**

In the present, back at the Okumura home, Rin had sat Kazuki down on the couch. Every few seconds, the half-demon would open his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it to think of something else. At some points, Kazuki would get up to try and leave, but Rin would simply sit him down again. It wasn't as if this was easy. A part of Rin actually hoped that he'd never have to tell his son about the demon side of his family. He even tried to keep the poor boy away from Mephisto for fear of what their meeting would lead to. He just didn't want his son to get involved in these things.

"Alright…so, I'm sure you have some questions," Rin asked timidly. "I'll try to answer them as best I can."

"No, I don't. I don't want to know anything about _you_, or _Grandpa Satan_, or anything else connected to _your_ weirdness!" Kazuki snapped as he stood up to leave once again, only to be forced to sit down again by his father. "I just want you to leave me alone!"

"I know this will take some getting used to, but it's not that bad—"

"I don't _want_ to get used to this! I didn't want to get used to the weirdness from before, but this is too much!"

Rin groaned and took hold of Kazuki's shoulders so he could look into his glaring eyes. "Look, I know it sounds bad. When you were a kid, I didn't tell you because I didn't wanna scare you. When you got older and started complaining about having a family that wasn't…normal, I figured that you'd be happier if you didn't know." Kazuki continued to glare. "Satan's not your grandfather any more than he's my father. He doesn't matter in our lives and he doesn't define us."

"…Can I go to my room now?" Kazuki asked in a flat tone while still glaring at Rin.

"Yeah." As his son got up and went upstairs, Rin sighed and rubbed his temples. Kazuki would eventually get used to the truth—or at least not care. If Rin and Yukio could get over it, so could he. But the half-demon had more urgent issues to deal with than an upset teenager. Right now, he had to deal with one of his least favorite parts of being an exorcist: research. He had to hold back a groan of annoyance as he went upstairs himself.

**X-X-X**

"Damn it, Yukio's right. I need to keep stuff like this more organized." Rin had found himself digging through the old textbooks he used when he was still going to cram school. He hoped that _maybe_, he'd be able to find some information on Avnas, or Amy, or whatever the hell his name was in a demonology textbook. But the half-demon didn't exactly keep his old textbooks on a shelf. He kept them packed away in a box, along with the textbooks from his high school and college classes because he never thought he would read them again. "If I get the time, I'm gonna at least put the stuff from cram school in their own box." He pulled out books on various subjects before he found the demonology book he was looking for.

After minutes of leafing repeatedly through the book as he sat on the floor of his bedroom, the half-demon slammed the book shut with a sigh. "Nothing on Avnas in there…" It made sense, though. Most of the demonology books they used for text books only talked about demon _species_, with the only mentioned _individual_ demons being Satan and the Demon Kings. "Think, think, think… The thing Kazuki was reading last night said something about him." Rin took out his phone and began a little web search. "Okay, according to this stuff, Avnas or Amy is mentioned in the Lesser Key of Solomon, the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, the Dictionnaire Infernal, and the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic…none of which I think I have." He dropped the basic demonology book and began searching through the piles of books he had taken out. No such luck. "Well, _crap_… I _could _look through the True Cross Order's archives, but that'd probably bring up unwanted questions or unwanted attention. There must be _someone_ I know who has at least _one_ of those books… Maybe…Yukio? Can I really trust him to keep his mouth shut?" Rin's eyes brightened. There was one other option.

**X-X-X**

"Hello, Rin!" Shiemi greeted as she stood outside, dressed in a casual kimono and carrying a single book in her hands.

"Hey, Shiemi! Sorry I called you over just to give me some books…" Rin then noticed that she was only carrying the one. "Uh, was that all Yukio had?"

"Oh, no! This book's mine! The modified Lesser Key of Solomon was one of the things you had to study in cram school to get a meister in Tamer, so I thought it was weird that you were basically asking for it."

"O-oh… Wait, what do you mean it's modified?"

"Well, not all of the information about the demons of Solomon from the books you asked for is accurate."

Rin arched an eyebrow. "How exactly?"

"Well, the information compiled by Solomon on how to deal with the specific kinds of demons he captured was given to him _by _those same demons. And they weren't all exactly truthful to him… Some lied about their species, the sorts of things they were weak against, or both." Shiemi held up the book. "The information on the demons he captured was altered to be more accurate, though there are some demons that have yet to be fully identified."

"Oh." Well, that was interesting. On the downside, it meant that he remember as much about that from cram school. On the upside, this might mean that Avnas was actually a demon so foul, he could convince Satori to wise up and not give her soul to him. "Well, thanks for letting me borrow it. I promise I'll give it back just the way you gave it to me," the half-demon said as he reached out to take the book.

The blonde woman held back the book as she wore a worried expression. "Yes, about that… What exactly are you going to do with this book?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Well, I know that things haven't been easy as of late, what with Satori being in the hospital and now Kazuki-kun finding out about…you know." Shiemi quickly cleared her throat. "What I mean is, no matter how badly things might be right now, you don't have to resort to using demons to—"

"Hold on a minute! I'm not that desperate!" Rin snapped. "I figured I could study how to take care of certain demons. I just need something to keep my mind off of everything that's going on, that's all."

The female exorcist suddenly looked ashamed. "O-of course! I'm so sorry, Rin! When you requested those books on the phone, I started to think that you'd be willing to sacrifice something to make Satori better! I don't know what I was thinking…!"

"It's alright. A quick cure sure sounds enticing right now, but I figure I can convince Satori to get the surgery, or at least take the treatments."

"I hope so…"

From the top of the stairs, Kazuki watched his father and aunt exchange goodbyes. Once Rin had closed the door, he turned around and froze at the sight of his son. It only lasted for a split second, though, before Kazuki walked away. Rin took a breath and sighed as he opened the book. "Dealing with Avnas has to be easier than dealing with that boy…!"

**X-X-X**

Kazuki liked playing Demon God Chronicles. It was such an anger-relieving activity for him. As he watched his character deal the killing blow to the giant, fire-breathing demon. A small, violent part of him liked to imagine that it was his dad fading away in black smoke while his character and AI partners posed victoriously—just as he had for the last three demons they hunted together. "If it were only so easy… Oh, I won a new weapon." The door opened and Kazuki jumped before he realized it was just his dad. "What do _you_ want?" Rin snorted and walked into the room. Kazuki noticed that he was wearing his True Cross Order uniform with Kurikara at his side. "You're going on a mission?"

"Yeah." In a sense. "And even with the way you've been acting lately, I'm going to trust you to stay at home and _behave_," Rin spoke in a stern tone as he pointed a finger at the boy. "I'm _serious_. If you're not here by the time I get back home, your ass is mine!"

Kazuki glared at his father's back as he left the room. "I'm the one who can't trust _you_!" The teen muttered under his breath before he went back to playing his game.

Further down the hall, Rin crouched down and whispered to Kuro, "If he tries to leave the house or run away, transform and _sit on him._"

"_Do I have to babysit Kazuki? Whenever he's upset, he never pays attention to me!"_ Kuro whined.

"That's just because he can't understand you. If you do this for me, I'll give you some catnip wine."

The cat sídhe's eyes lit up. _"Really?! You really mean it?!"_

"Promise." The half-demon stood up and stretched. "Now, I gotta go and brace myself for a meeting I _have_ to go to, but don't _want_ to go to…"

As Rin went down the stairs, Kuro laid down in front of the door of Kazuki's bedroom and curled up. A few minutes after his tamer left, the door opened and hit the cat demon, causing Kuro to cry out in pain as he was brushed aside by the door. Kazuki poked his head out into the hallway in curiosity and saw the cat sídhe run in front of him, fur bristling in anger. "Kuro? What do you want?"

"_I want an apology, but I don't think I'll get it."_ Kuro's thoughts, of course, went unheard by the relatively human boy.

The dark-haired teen crouched down in front of the cat. "Do you want food? Because I can't just make you something like Dad…unless…"

**X-X-X**

In minutes, Kazuki was watching TV on the couch in the living room. Kuro was content in eating leftovers from the so-called birthday dinner from the night before. The house was basically quiet until there was a knock at the front door. Kazuki got up and opened the door, only to jump when he realized that it was Avnas. "What—?!" He suddenly clammed up as he remembered Kuro was there. He then leaned forward and whispered, "Why are you _here_?!"

"Daddy's gone, isn't he? I figured we could meet here now that the house is empty," said Avnas.

"It _isn't_ empty! My dad's familiar is here, and if I leave, he'll squeal to him and I'll be _castrated_!"

The demon shrugged. "Alright, then we'll just go up to your room."

"My room?" Kuro didn't exactly know who Avnas was. He guessed that it was safe. "S-sure… Come inside." Kazuki stepped aside and allowed the redheaded demon to come inside. "Follow me."

The whole time, Kuro was staring in curiosity. Leaving the food, he went upstairs after Kazuki and Avnas. It almost seemed like he was going to get into Kazuki's room unnoticed when Avnas suddenly spoke up, "Ugh, you have a _cat_? I'm allergic to them! Quick, get it out of the room before I choke on my tongue or something!"

Unsure if he was telling the truth or lying just to make sure Kuro wasn't going to eavesdrop on them, Kazuki picked up the cat sídhe and dropped him out into the hallway. "Sorry, Kuro. Stay out here, okay?"

"_What?! You can't do this to me! I'm the babysitter!"_ Once again, all Kazuki heard was pitiful mewling. Despite that, the door was shut on Kuro. In response, the cat demon began scratching at the door. _"Kazukiii! Open up!"_

Avnas plopped down onto Kazuki's bed with a smile. "Now that _that_ distraction's outta the way, allow me to show you your mother's ticket to a clean bill of health." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out, of all things, a black dog plushie.

"A doll? What the _fuck_ good is a _doll_ going to—?!"

"Now, now! Calm yourself! Take a good hard look at this, doll. Doesn't it look familiar to you?"

Kazuki stared at the plushie and noticed the bit of red thread stitched around the dog's neck. After a moment, he started to remember something…

**X-X-X**

"_Aw, what's the matter, sweetie?" _

_6-year old Kazuki sniffled and held up his plush dog. The head had been torn off of its body. "M-Mommy! Some kids at s-school were mean and k-killed Puppy! UWAAAAHHH!"_

_Satori stared at the doll in surprise for a few seconds before she realized that Kazuki was still crying. "D-don't worry, sweetie! Puppy isn't dead! Mommy can fix him up." A moment later, she appeared before her son holding the mended up doll. Its head had been sewn back on with some red thread. "Ta-daaa~! Good as new!" She handed the doll back to Kazuki, whose first response was to cuddle with it._

**X-X-X**

"That's Puppy! I-I mean, that's the doll my mom gave me when I was little!" Kazuki looked at Avnas suspiciously. "Where'd _you_ get it?"

"I took it while I was visiting your mom in the hospital. To think she had this thing with her the whole time. She probably could've saved herself."

"What are you talking about? This is just a doll!"

"It's more than a doll. It's a fetish."

"Ew."

Avnas gave the boy a half-lidded stare. "…I _meant_ that this houses your inugami."

Kazuki began to stare at the doll, dumbfounded. "Y-you mean…this whole time…?"

"Well, maybe not 24/7, but yeah, that's where the inugami resides."

After a few seconds, the boy's expression changed to one of anger. "I don't care about that…_thing_!"

The demon smiled. "You should. Inugami are ghosts who can possess things. When possessing inanimate objects, it only causes them not to work, but when its host is a flesh and blood creature, it can make them better. Faster! Stronger! Even cure them of their ills!"

The teenager's eyes widened. "Really?! Wait a minute. If it were _that_ easy, why wouldn't Mom just have the dog possess her?"

"How should _I_ know?" Avnas looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "_Maybe_ she decided that she _hated_ the life she chose and wants to end it. Should've listened to me before: Satan's spawn are nothing but trouble."

Kazuki bit the inside of his cheek at the mention of Satan and began to stare at the dog doll. "So…how do I get it to come out?"

"I remember that Satori would put out food for it to lure it out."

"Food?" The dark-haired teen immediately left the room, surprising Kuro, who had been waiting for him to come back out. He headed downstairs and found the plate of leftovers Kuro had been eating. Kazuki put the dog plushie down in front of the plate. "…Uh, what now?"

"Now you call it out. Just think of it like calling a dog to eat," Avnas instructed from up on the staircase. "C'mon, hurry up! The sooner you get that dog out, the sooner you can make your mother all better."

Kazuki gulped. "Uh… H-here, Puppy! It's chow time! C-come and get it!"

Kazuki figured that summoning an inugami would have the same results as Avnas's appearance: something flashy that struck fear and awe. Instead, Puppy's entrance was simply popping out of the doll and sitting down in front of the plate. Despite that, he was impressed by the demon. Just like how Kuro _mostly_ looked like a normal cat, Puppy looked _mostly_ like a normal dog: a little, black Shiba Inu to be exact. His tail formed into a wisp at the end and the fur around his neck was stained with red, but he looked relatively normal. Kazuki always did want to have a dog, but his parents were unconvinced about his being responsible enough to be a pet owner.

Then the sound of a cat hissing brought him back to reality. Kazuki remembered that Kuro was still there, and the cat sídhe was now glaring at the inugami. Puppy wasn't looking quite friendly, either, baring his teeth and growling. "C-calm down, you two! Puppy, Kuro is a member of our family, just like you! Y-you're supposed to _protect_ family members, right?"

"_Kazuki, get away from it!"_ Of course, Kuro's commands weren't heard by the teen, so all he could do was hiss and hope the kid took a hint.

Kazuki turned his back on the inugami to look at his father's familiar "There's nothing to worry about, Kuro. Puppy is—" His sentence was cut short as Puppy _literally_ jumped into him from behind, disappearing into the teen's body in the process. Kazuki stood still as his pupils shrank. A pair of black dog ears suddenly materialized out of nowhere on his head.

"_Kazuki?"_ Kuro approached the teen and began to paw at his foot. _"Are you okay?"_ No verbal response was given to the cat sídhe. Only a kick that sent him flying into a wall.

Avnas applauded as he descended down the stairs. "Good boy! Still aggressive, I see!" Kazuki, or rather Puppy, growled at the redheaded demon and bared his teeth. "And still foul-tempered as well." The possessed boy continued growling. "Knock it off! Instead of growling at me, how about focusing on Satori?" Puppy stopped growling, though he continued glaring at the demon. "That's right. You're her only hope. You want her to survive, don't you?" Avnas looked at Kuro, who was twitching. "Let's leave before the fur ball comes to…"

**X-X-X**

Let it be known that despite the many names he went by—Johan Faust V, Mephisto Pheles, and Samael among other names—Rin would always know the demon behind the desk as the clown that could get on his nerves. "Well, if this isn't a pleasant surprise~! To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence, Okumura-san?" Mephisto greeted Rin as he entered his office. "Could it be your wife? Dear Satori, I hear, has been in ill health for a while now."

Rin held back on asking _how_ he knew that. The half-demon exorcist wanted to remain professional and mature for this. Outside of official True Cross Order business, Rin really didn't want _anything_ to do with his guardian/half-brother, Mephisto Pheles, let alone ask him for favors. Whenever he did, Mephisto would make him do things in exchange. Some stuff was alright, if boring, like slaying minor demons that had snuck onto the campus or substituting for a teacher at the cram school. Then there were tasks like buying some sort of anime merchandise for him with money out of Rin's own pocket—never mind that Mephisto's _pocket change_ was probably far more than what Rin's family saved for weekly grocery shopping.

Rin sighed and braced himself. "I'm here to ask for a favor." At that moment, the Demon King's eyes lit up and his half-brother knew that he was already thinking of a task for him to do. "I wanna know how you break a contract with a demon."

Mephisto's eyebrow quirked up. "And _why_ would you need to know _that_? What sort of trouble could you have gotten into now?"

"No trouble." It wasn't any of the clown's business, anyway. He was certain that he could handle it on his own…with a little bit of outside help.

"I know that you're lying, Okumura-san~" the purple-haired demon spoke with a smirk as he bridged his hands together. "Come now! Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"…I need to break a contract to save someone's soul."

"And who might that be? Could it be young Okumura-kun? The earnestness of youth can lead to problems, after all."

"It doesn't matter."

"If you're willing to come to _me_~, whoever it is must have some importance to you." Rin said nothing. "The one in control of the contract, of course, is the demon. They're the one who decides whether or not they fulfill their end, and some may even be convinced to do away with it—though that rarely happens. Though…you could also break it by _exorcising_ the demon responsible."

"I figured that… Well, thanks anyway. I'll owe you one. Sorry for disturbing you," Rin spoke quickly as he made his way out the door.

Mephisto tsk-tsked as he shook his head. "So secretive... One would think he'd learned by now not to keep secrets from his family." He leaned back in his chair, smiling. "Well, he'll hopefully put on a good show!"

**X-X-X**

Later, Rin was finishing up drawing something on the floor of the empty cram school classroom he snuck into a while ago. He tossed the piece of chalk he had been using aside and looked down at his work. Rin had drawn the seal of Avnas from the Lesser Key of Solomon onto the floor as best he could. In the center of the seal was a lit candle. After cutting the palm of his hand a bit, the half-demon held his hand out over the magic circle and droplets of his blood fell onto the circle.

"Alright…" Rin took a breath and looked things over to make sure everything was set. Door was locked. Magic circle drawn to be as painstakingly accurate as the blue-haired man could do. Blood and candle were done. Next would be to say the verse that summoned the demon. "In the name of King Solomon, I call the great president Avnas," Rin read from the book. "I seek your aid, your wisdom, your wealth, and your power. Please, answer my call."

The candle's flame began to flicker before it suddenly grew. The flame slowly rose up off the wick and formed into a ball that hovered in midair. "I, Avnas, have answered your call in your time of need," a soft-spoken man's voice echoed from the fireball. "Tell me your desires and I shall fulfill them."

As much as Rin was hoping to go the violent route and just exorcise the demon, it may have been possible to reason with it. "I summoned you to break your contract with Satori Okumura."

"…Who?"

"Satori Yoshida, then."

"I am afraid I do not know that name."

"What do you mean you don't know her name?!" Rin snapped. "You made a contract with a woman named Satori in exchange for her soul! You can't lie about that!"

"I am an angel. Angels do not make deals in exchange for souls. Only demons."

"Don't pull that crap with me! Angels _are_ demons! You aren't even an _angel_! You're a djinni!" Rin accused, holding up the book that was opened on Avnas's page. "You granted Satori's wish and in exchange, you want her soul! I read that you were a reasonable demon, so I was hoping we could come to an understanding."

"I do not know what you are talking about."

Rin's eyebrow twitched for a second before he reached for Kurikara and unsheathed the blade. Blue flames instantly burst to life around his body as his ears and fangs grew longer and the pupils of his eyes became bright red. "If you're gonna continue acting clueless, I'll just break your contract by exorcising you!" He pointed the flaming sword's blade right at the sentient ball of flam

"WAIT!" Avnas exclaimed, dropping his soft-spoken tone for one of alarm. "Okay, I admit it! I'm a djinni! Damn exorcist… What do you want from me?"

"I want you to leave my wife alone!"

"I have no idea who your wife is. I haven't served a human in centuries, I haven't asked for a soul in an even longer time, and I liked it that way."

Rin narrowed his eyes. "You expect me to believe that?!"

Avnas's fireball form suddenly expanded and took on a humanoid shape with glowing white eyes. His torso was large, orange and muscular, and from the waist down, the djinni's lower half was a long tail composed of flames. "You wish for proof?! I will show you proof!" the demon bellowed in a deeper, louder voice than before. He clapped his hands and in a burst of flames, a floating hand mirror appeared facing Rin.

"And what sort of proof is…?" The half-demon trailed off as the mirror began to show a different image: the possessed Kazuki and the fake Avnas walking through the halls of the True Cross General Hospital, passing nurses, doctors and patients as they went. "Who's that? And why is _Kazuki_ with him?! Damn that boy…!" He would've remarked how pissed off he was about Kazuki leaving home if he wasn't so confused about why he was seeing this.

"Isn't it obvious? You wished to find the one who made a deal for your wife's soul, and there you see them." Avnas snorted and folded his arms across his chest. "If that is all that is asked of me, I will take my leave." Without giving Rin the option to speak, the djinni disappeared in a swirl of smoke and fire. In that instant, the hand mirror dropped, its glass shattering before the entire thing somehow went up in flames.

It took Rin a few seconds to register what had happened. He sheathed Kurikara with a groan and turned on his heel to leave the room. He didn't know what was happening, he didn't know what the hell Kazuki was doing any more than he knew what Satori was thinking when she didn't say a thing about her demon deal a secret for all, and he didn't even know if what Avnas showed him was real. For all he knew, the image in the mirror was a trick to distract him. Either way, the sight of Kazuki with a shady stranger unsettled Rin. And it was fear for his son and wife's safety that won over logic when he unlocked the door and used the infinity key.

**X-X-X**

**Side note: The singular form of the word djinn/jinn is djinni/jinni.**

**Other side note: Not sure whose kin I'd classify djinn as belong to: Iblis (for their association with fire) or Samael (for their wish-granting ability that may or may not be seen as utilizing space-time).**

**Other-other side note: Mephisto's out of character. I just know it.**


	4. A Slow Burn

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Blue Exorcist series. She only owns this fic._

_Chapter Summary: Rin is determined to protect his family, but while his wife is willing to open up to him, his son is another story. And there may be more of a problem than one mere demon._

**_Warning: _**_There are mentions of mature themes like rape, suicide, and some other things in this story._

**X-X-X**

**Die Happy**

#4: A Slow Burn

"You understand why I'm doing this, right? I'm not a _nice_ person. I hate most of my family for things they can't control. I ignore people I see on the streets who are tormented by demons. I was raised to not pick fights or hurt people, but I…like the thought of hurting people. The life of someone like me, no matter what anyone says, isn't important. But Mom's life is. Even with the lies and secrets, she's still a better person than me…and she doesn't deserve to die of lung cancer in a hospital. You _do_ understand, don't you…Puppy?"

Kazuki continued looking up at the inugami that, in his consciousness, looked far different. No longer a small Shiba Inu, but a giant, scrawny black dog that had him pinned under its paw, staring down at the teen with blank red eyes. The boy didn't seem fazed by it all, though. It wasn't like his soul was being mauled.

"That's right. You understand why…"

**X-X-X**

She was an awful person. Nice people don't lie for years to their spouses. Or suddenly dump a family curse on their children. Or worry their family when they decide not to get medical treatment. Before, she liked to think she had a good reason for doing all that, but there wasn't. It was fear, pure and simple. Fear of how upset Rin would be with her. Fear of how much Kazuki would hate her now. Fear of surgery and fear of having to live with them after the truth would come out.

"At least they won't have to deal with me anymore." The sickly woman muttered as she stared up at the ceiling. "It's only a matter of time until I die."

The door was flung open, banging against the wall loudly. "Do not despair! An angel has come to you in your time of need!"

Being surprised by the entrance not only made Satori jump, but she started coughing. Once she calmed down, she stared at the redheaded demon in confusion. "Who are you?"

"I suppose you can't recognize me. Then again, this body's relatively new and actually has a dick this time," said the fake Avnas as he entered the room, followed by the possessed Kazuki, who closed the door behind him.

"…Avnas?" The dark-haired woman fell silent for a few seconds before forcing a smile on her face. "I guess you're here for my soul, aren't you?" She then noticed her son as he immediately rushed over to her bedside and began nuzzling his head against her face. "K-kazuki?! Why are you here?!" When her possessed son licked her on the cheek and she noticed the pair of dog ears on his head, she put it together. "Oh, my god…! Bad dog! _Bad dog_! Get out of his body _now_!" Satori hissed, pushing Puppy away. Puppy grabbed Satori's head and forced her to look at him. The possessed boy's mouth opened and black smoke wafted out before entering through Satori's open mouth and nostrils. As the black dog ears disappeared off of Kazuki's head, they appeared on Satori's. It only lasted for a few seconds before the smoke left the same way it entered, forming into the inugami on the floor.

"Feeling better, Tori?" The redheaded demon asked as the dark-haired woman held onto her chest and took deep breaths.

"…What did you do?"

"It's not what _I_ did, it's what your son did." Satori looked at Kazuki, who was also regaining his sense of self, as the fake continued, "Such a wonderful child he is, wanting to save his mother no matter the cost."

The mother looked at her son. "Kazuki, what did you do?"

"I…Puppy made you better."

That was all he was able to say before the door slammed open revealing a furious-looking Rin. "There you are, you faking bastard!"

The imposter scoffed at the half-demon, though he still backed away from the door until he came against the foot of Satori's bed. "Faking? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Rin! What are you _doing_? I asked you not to do anything stupid!" Satori pleaded while Kazuki stared at his father grabbing his sword. "_I_ made a deal! I don't need _or want_ you to get involved!"

"Yeah? Well, you shouldn't make deals with demons who don't tell you their real names!"

"…What?"

"When I summoned Avnas, what I got wasn't an angel, it was a djinni. He doesn't grant wishes in exchange for souls because he's a _good_ demon, and he hasn't been active in Assiah regarding humans for years. Do you get it, Satori? You made a deal with an _imposter_ who was _pretending_ to be a _faker_! If you want proof, I'll fucking summon 'em right now so you can see with your own eyes!" Rin looked at the imposter, who was now twitching, before continuing, "So, now that your secret's out, you've got two options: you leave my wife and anyone else you made deals with alone, or I beat the shit outta you."

The redheaded imposter muttered under his breath, "If it isn't one spawn of Satan, it's another. Why do you always do this? What do you have against me?" The temperature in the room began to rise a bit as heat waves rose off of the demon. As he spoke, his nose and eyes began to bleed, but he seemed oblivious to his vessel's troubles. "Why do you ALWAYS DO THIS?!" When the volume of the imposter's voice rose, his entire body became engulfed in flames. To an ordinary person, it would've been a terrifying sight: blood trailing down his face, flames burning in his eye sockets and mouth in a way that made him resemble a Jack-o-lantern, the fiery aura around him burning away his clothes and starting to do the same with his skin. "FUCK YOU!" And then, he literally _exploded_. A wave of flames threatened to consume the room, sending everything in it up in smoke.

…Or so it would've, if Kurikara hadn't been drawn in that moment. A wave of blue flames also went forth, consuming the ordinary fire before it could do much damage so there was nothing left but Rin's flames. In that brief moment, Kazuki could see his father's figure amongst the blue flames. This was the first time he'd seen his father in his awakened state, and just like how the sight of Avnas burning had frightened him, so had the sight of his father like this.

And then it was over the moment Kurikara was sheathed and the flames died down. Rin sucked his teeth in annoyance as he stared at a scorch mark on the floor where Avnas's imposter once stood. He then remembered his family and began checking them for injuries. "Are you alright? You haven't been injured, have you?"

"We're fine, Rin," Satori spoke flatly.

"You're sure? Your condition isn't get riled up or—?"

"I'm better, Rin." The half-demon stared at his wife in confusion as she continued, "Kazuki cured me." The teenager took note that his mother sounded less than thrilled about her recovery. "With Ouji."

"Ouji?" Both Rin and Kazuki asked. The inugami, which had been hiding under the bed when the room nearly caught on fire, poked its head out and barked. It phased through the bed until it was on top next to Satori, whom it began to paw.

"So…Puppy's name is Ouji?" Kazuki asked. Of course the generations-old demon wouldn't be named something as stupid as Puppy. It's amazing that the ghostly dog didn't react violently to the childish name.

"Oh. Right. Inugami can remove health problems from their hosts if they will it," Rin mumbled. He looked at his son suspiciously. "How'd _you_ know that? Where did you even _find_ that thing?"

"I told Avnas—I mean, that demon guy that I wanted to save Mom. He liked how I was willing to give up my soul to save her despite all the secrets, so he told me Puppy—I mean, Ouji could make her better." He had no idea why he said that or why it felt kind of good to see his mother look down in shame.

He didn't have time enjoy it, though, because his father grabbed him by the shoulder and glared down into his eyes. "You…did…_what_?!" Rin shouted. For a brief moment, Kazuki thought back to the little show his father put on a while ago and wondered if he'd get angry enough to burn him to ashes. "What the hell were you thinking?! Your soul's not something you just give away! Do you even _know _what sorts of things demons do with souls? Anything you can think of is a hundred times _better_ than what actually happens, I'm sure!"

"I don't care about my soul. I'm less important than Mom, anyway." The brief moment of silence and the way his parents were staring at him was unsettling, so Kazuki added, "Besides, he blew himself up. Problem solved."

Rin let go of his son and looked back at the scorch marks on the floor. "There's a chance that he didn't and that was just a very drastic means of getting out of here. You _and_ your mom could still be in danger."

"Rin, why couldn't you couldn't just leave this alone?" Satori muttered.

"Leave this al— I was _trying_ to save your life!" Rin exclaimed. "If you told me about it sooner, like _when we met_—!"

"I didn't tell you because I didn't _want_ your help!"

"Why wouldn't you want my help?! FREEZE!" Rin grabbed Kazuki's shoulder as he tried to walk past him. "Where do you think _you're_ going?! You're still in trouble!"

"For _what_?! I saved Mom's life!" The boy wanted to say he managed to do more than his father did, but he didn't get to.

"You were supposed to stay at home and you disobeyed me! Even worse, you made a deal with a _demon_! You're grounded!"

"What?!"

"Oh, trust me, you should be grateful I'm not gonna _throttle the life outta you_!"

In the midst of all the family hostility, Ouji laid down on the bed and tried to hide his eyes behind his paws, whimpering.

**X-X-X**

In an empty room of an abandoned building, a ball of fire appeared, floating in midair. The fire then grew and took on a humanoid shape. It looked like a young man, dressed in what appeared to be a school uniform from the waist up. Below the waist, instead of legs, he had a long, wispy tail. His entire body—if it could be called that—was tinged with an orange hue, and his whole body flickered like fire.

"I can't believe it…! Why? Why is my luck so SHITTY?!" As he shouted, his whole body flared like a fire out of control. Flames danced in his eye sockets and mouth as he hunched over, twitching from anger. "Stupid Satan-spawn! They're all awful! I was so _close_, but because of _him_—!"

"What was that about being awful?"

The flames around the non-human entity stopped and he returned to normal. His expression of anger became one of fear as he turned around. "AH! F-f-forgive me!"

Standing behind the entity was a man who appeared to be middle-aged. He had short, wavy black hair and a goatee and was wearing a dark red dress suit with black dress shoes. He had a pair of pointed ears that more than hinted the obvious about what he was. "Forgive me _who_?"

"Forgive me, Lord Azazel! I didn't mean to offend you!"

"Offend me you did, Makoto," Azazel spoke as he stepped forward, holding his black-gloved hands together behind his back. "But not because of your words. It's because of your _actions_."

Makoto became flustered. "I-I'm sorry for…destroying my last body. I know how much you hate when I do that."

"On the contrary, I would _much_ prefer you to see the _joys_ of being a spirit. One pro is that you don't _burn through five bodies _in less than a month," Azazel emphasized as he held up five fingers.

"I wouldn't have burned through them if I weren't a _freaking flaming ghost_!" It wasn't _his_ fault that he became some walking—so to speak—_campfire_ upon death.

"Watch your tongue. Do you forget who you're talking to? _I'm_ the one who felt generous enough to allow you a second chance at life. And also, you would be able to _keep_ a body for longer if you could control your emotions." The red-clad demon began to smirk. "What's the matter? Is your envy of the living turning to hate?"

"No," Makoto said with a frown. "I just hate that Satan guy! He's been getting in the way from the moment he came and saved Satori from the incubus I got to help me—and it was really hard to get it to do that!"

"So, you're quitting?"

"No, I'm not quitting! I'm just giving up on Satori!"

Azazel frowned. "Excuse me? I told you to bring me the soul of Satori Okumura when she died a happy death."

"It isn't _my_ fault! She started making herself unhappy the moment she decided to spill about me to her family!"

"Then just _make her happy_. You didn't have to _cure her_ of her illness!" The demon growled. If the person in front of him was corporeal, he might have grabbed him.

Makoto slumped over as he snorted. "That husband of hers would've just convinced her to take the treatments and get better, anyway. He _always_ convinces her to do what I _don't_ want her to do somehow! I couldn't even get her to abort the damn kid in the womb when she told me she didn't want kids while she was still in college! I HATE HIM!" The ghost began to burn intensely once again. He then looked at Azazel, baring his teeth, "This is all _your_ fault! If you didn't put up all those rules and restrictions, I would've been able to really become human _years_ ago!"

"A new life shouldn't be something you're just _given_. You have to _earn_ it. Or in your case, _pay_." the red-clad demon spoke as he held up a closed fist. "And I _do_ so want to have a happy spirit... But since I doubt you'll be able to make Mrs. Okumura happy as a result of all that's happened, our deal is canceled."

"Wait, wait, wait! I-I may not be able to get Satori's soul, but I can get her son's!" Makoto pleaded as he held his hands together. "He doesn't care about his soul! He was so willing to give it to me!"

Azazel arched an eyebrow. "The son of the bastard child?" He held his chin thoughtfully as he stared up at the ceiling. "To have the soul of someone who is _technically_ part of the royal family of Gehenna by blood… That's something I've never considered." The demon fell silent for a moment. "Ah, but then there's _him_… He wouldn't care, would he? The boy is surely more human than demon—no one worth missing. Maybe…" The red-clad demon smirked at the ghost. "Tell you what: if you can actually bring me his soul, I'll accept it as payment." Makoto's expression brightened. "_However_, this is your last chance."

The flaming ghost gulped. "Last chance…?"

"I've had enough of the failures and have no more time to waste watching them. You're not very entertaining anymore. So, you must give me the soul of Kazuki Okumura. If you fail, forget about exorcists—_I'll_ purge you from Assiah."

"And…I can just _take it_? No _'die happy' _crap? I can just _kill_ him?"

Azazel held back a laugh. "…Tell me what my title is."

"The…demon king of spirits?"

"Precisely! I am a _king_!" The red-clad demon exclaimed as he held out his arms with a flourish. "If you wish to offer a soul to _me_, it must be done _properly_. So, no. You can't just kill him. He must be sacrificed."

"I…don't understand. Isn't that the same?" Makoto asked, sounding confused.

"And here I thought you were a well-educated person in life... I want you to perform a _ritual_ killing. There are _preparations_ to be made. Most of which require you to have a _body_. Get it?" The flaming spirit's expression became one of realization as Azazel smirked. "Now, here's what you'll need…"

**X-X-X**

With the chaos that occurred at the hospital and how unbelievable it sounded, the medical staff refused to believe Satori no longer had lung cancer and almost didn't let her to come home with them until they tested her. They also refused to believe Rin's lie that the fire caused had been a result of faulty wiring until he caused a nearby outlet to catch fire. Not his proudest moment, but it did the trick. Rin remembered that the ride home had been just as unnervingly quiet as the ride to the hospital earlier that day, and the moment they got into the house, both Satori and Kazuki retreated into their rooms with barely a word.

The entire day was basically the makings of one large migraine for Rin, and it wasn't even over yet.

"Satori?" Rin knocked on the door of the bedroom they shared. "Come on, this is ridiculous! We need to stay together!" No response came from inside. The half-demon sighed and stared at the door, wondering if it would reflect poorly on him if he just _kicked it down_? He stared at their bedroom door and grabbed the doorknob. Surprisingly, he found it to be unlocked. "You're kidding! She had the door unlocked this whole time? Goddamn it…!" He opened the door and poked his head inside. Satori was lying down on the bed, staring at the black dog plushie she'd picked up seconds before they found an upset Kuro locked in the closet.

"What do you want?" His wife asked as he walked inside.

"I really need you and Kazuki to stay in my sight. I can't protect you if you run off like that."

"Do you think that maybe I don't _want_ your protection?"

"Why not? Why don't you want me to help you? Do you honestly wanna die?" Rin should've sounded more upset as he spoke, but he couldn't help but be depressed at the thought.

Satori didn't look at her husband, nor did she answer his question. She just said, "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I wanted everyone to be happy when I died."

"How? How the _hell_ could you expect me to be happy?!"

"I wanted us to spend my last days reminiscing about the happy times…until I decided that I didn't want to die without telling my secrets." The dark-haired woman laughed bitterly, "That was a mistake. It just made everything worse."

"…You could've gotten better at any time," Rin pointed out as he approached the bed.

"I didn't _want_ to get better. I was dying at the point of my life that I was the happiest." Satori looked up at the ceiling. "It was the least I could do for the person responsible for that happiness. Besides, maybe I deserve it for the things I've done." She felt her husband's hands grab her head before he made her face him. The sight of his angry expression just made her feel worse.

"That person was a demon who _lied_ to you for years and was willing to take your _son's_ soul! He just wanted your soul! He didn't really care about your happiness _or_ your life! _I_ do!" Rin wrapped his arms around Satori and held her tightly. "I promised I would make you happy and keep you safe because I love you, Satori. I don't want anything to happen to _any_ part of you, body or soul. You don't deserve that."

He heard Satori sniffle. "I don't think so. It's all my fault this is happening…and why Kazuki…!" She sounded on the brink of tears as Rin stroked her head. "I'm an awful person!" The dark-haired woman sobbed.

"No, you're not. You just got taken advantage of in a moment of weakness. Demons do that to a lot of people. But don't worry: I'll protect you and Kazuki."

"Riiiiin!"

"There, there. Let it all out…"

Out in the hallway, Kazuki had heard it all. He could only bear standing out there for a few more seconds before going back into his room. Kuro and Ouji, who had glaring at each other as they sat on the floor, looked up at the teenager as he entered. The boy collapsed onto his bed, groaning into a pillow. "I can't believe it… I go through all the trouble of saving her, selling my soul in the process, and she's ungrateful for it… He doesn't do a _damn_ thing to contribute and she's crying into his arms…!" Kazuki groaned again before rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling sadly. Kuro jumped onto the bed and began to rub up against the dark-haired boy's face to make him feel better. As he alternated between pushing Kuro away and petting him, Kazuki tried to see the brighter side of things: she was better now. She wasn't going to die any time soon. Whether or not she would thank him wasn't important, just like his soul.

Then again, what about him was important?

"Kazuki," he heard Rin speak. "I—"

"I know what you're gonna lecture me about, and I don't wanna hear about it." In seconds, the boy was picked up off the bed by his father and made to sit down next to him. "…I hate when you do that."

"Look, I…I understand why you felt like you had to do what you did." Kazuki snorted and glared at the wall as Rin quickly added, "That doesn't make it right, of course! Your soul's not something you should just give away to demons! Most of the time, the only thing they do with souls they get their hands on is torture them and keep them from moving on. And sometimes they _eat_ them!"

"Don't _all_ demons do one or the other to people?" The boy asked flatly.

Rin narrowed his eyes. "_Regardless_! I don't want you to go through something like that."

"Hmph! I don't care… Mom's better and her life's more important than mine anyway, so crying over my soul is pointless."

"I dunno _why_ you say that kind of stuff, but that's far from the truth." The half-demon raised an arm and hooked it around his son's shoulders to pull the teen in closer. His attempts to get free, of course, were in vain. "Your life is very important to me and your mom, despite what you might think."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Suddenly, Rin had Kazuki in a chokehold. "Don't just brush it off! I'm being honest!" After of few seconds of having his son struggle in his inhuman hold, Rin let go and patted him on the head. "Seriously. We'd really be devastated if something bad happened to you." The half-demon then grabbed onto the teen's arm and stood up. "Now come down into the living room where I can keep an eye on you and your mother." He smiled. "If it's a little weird to you, think of it as family bonding time! I'll even make a great dinner for us to eat together!"

Kazuki continued to look disinterested. From the floor, Kuro and Ouji's eyes lit up. _"Dinner!"_ The cat sídhe cheered before he looked at the inugami they resumed glaring at each other once again as the father and son left the room.

**X-X-X**

Later that evening in the living room, Kazuki was sitting on the couch while Kuro slept on the head of the couch and Ouji laid down on the floor. Although the television was on, the teen's attention was focused on the kitchen. His parents were in the other room, both wearing aprons with their hair put up.

"Go into the living room. I'll handle the cooking," said his father, trying to shoo off his mother with a gesture.

"But I wanna help," his mother spoke. "It'd go quicker if we both did the work."

"The doctor said that you should spend the first couple of weeks home relaxing until you regain your strength."

"But you've been doing all the work while I was gone! This is the least I could do after everything's that happened."

"I'd rather not push you so soon. Go sit down."

"It's _not_ pushing. I want to help!"

Rin sighed and scratched his head. "Man, you're stubborn! Are you trying to put yourself in the hospital again?"

Satori folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "You're just being paranoid! I wanna help with dinner, not run a marathon!"

The husband and wife glared at each other silently for a few seconds until the former grumbled, "Fine. You can help a _little_. But I'll tell you what to do, and if you start to feel tired, I want you to sit down, no questions asked."

"Alright. Tell me what to do then."

"Uh, wash the vegetables while I boil the rice."

Kazuki continued watching them in mild surprise. After everything that had happened and was still going on, instead of arguing or getting upset over the situation, they were concerned with making dinner. It seemed ridiculous, but typical at the same time. Somehow it figured that his unusual family, having been used to such things, would be able to quickly adjust to a normal state.

But they weren't normal. _None_ of this was normal. And he didn't want to get used to things like this happening over the rest of his life…

**X-X-X**

"Almost done. Go tell the guys that dinner'll be ready in a couple of minutes," Rin told Satori as he bent over to check inside the oven.

"Sure." The dark-haired woman picked up some plates and left the kitchen. "Kazuki~! Dinner's almost ready!" She announced. She looked to the couch and only saw Kuro napping. She assumed he was upstairs, so she went up to find him and Ouji.

Several minutes later, Rin stepped out of the kitchen, carrying a pair of plates with food. The moment he set them down on the table, Kuro woke up with a start and was immediately sitting in front of the half-demon, both his tails wagging in anticipation. "Here you go, Kuro!" Rin set down a plate of fish in front of the cat sídhe.

"_Mmm…! Thank you, Rin!"_ The cat demon watched as he put down another plate. _"Is that for me, too?"_ Kuro assumed that it must've been his apology for the babysitting fiasco.

"Actually, it's for Ouji."

"_You mean the dog?!"_ Kuro's fur bristled as he gave a low growl.

"Calm down. He's as much a part of the family as you are." And the whole _'feed or pay'_ curse connected to the inugami counted towards him as well, so Rin thought he may as well make a good impression. Kuro continued to frown before he began eating from his plate. Rin went back and forth between the kitchen and the table, bringing out plates of food. When he was done, he looked over everything happily. It felt like ages since they'd been able to have a family dinner altogether. Despite the current situation, it was nice.

"RIIIIIN!" And then the sound of Satori screaming brought Rin out of his reverie. His wife barreled into him as she sobbed, "He's gone! He's gone! I can't find Kazuki anywhere!"

"Don't panic! Kazuki's probably just in the bathroom. He's not stupid enough to go out knowing how dangerous it could be!" That assurance faded when Satori shook her head and continued sobbing, causing a combination of emotions in Rin: heart-dropping fear and blood-boiling anger.

**X-X-X**

It was stupid and dangerous to wander about True Cross Town at night. You didn't know what sort of creeps—human _or_ demon—you could come across. But Kazuki wasn't exactly in a proper state of mind for a moment. All he cared about was finding the demon he had a deal with. If he came across some serial killer or man-eating demon, well, that was a risk he had to take…

…And maybe a risk he didn't mind coming across anymore...

After several minutes, though, it was starting to feel pointless. Kazuki knew that _'Avnas'_ or whatever-his-name-was wasn't dumb enough to come to their house—not with his dad there ready to purge him from Assiah. But it wasn't like he knew how to just summon a demon out of thin air. Just as he was contemplating going back home, someone bumped into him. "Excuse me," the teen muttered as he made to walk around the person, only to be suddenly enveloped in a hug.

"_There_ you are, Kazuki!" The person—a woman—slurred as she held Kazuki tightly. She was taller than him, so he couldn't get a good look at her face, but her slurring and the scent of alcohol that managed to reach his nostrils was enough to hint that she was drunk.

"How…do you know my name?" Did he have a _stalker_ now? That was _just_ what he needed in his life right now: a creepy cougar who didn't mind pedophilia.

"I _knew_ ya couldn't stay away! 'Cuz…'cuz you an' I are alike!" The possible drunken stalker held him even tighter in a way that reminded him of his father. Her body felt hot to the point of feeling uncomfortable despite it being a cool night. "Don't…don't despair…! An angel…has come to rescue you~! Ahahaha!"

Kazuki's eyes widened in realization, but before he could voice his thoughts, he was struck hard in the back of the head and blacked out.

**X-X-X**

**Side note:** Azazel is associated with goats in Judaism. He is said to have ruled over goat demons (Se'rim), and goats who served as "scapegoats" for people's sins were sent out into the desert to him, then he would send them back.


	5. No Such Thing as Normal

**This chapter, there shall be blood spilt. (In other words, finally violence of the action kind!) Next chapter shall be the last!**

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Blue Exorcist series. She only owns this fic._

_Summary:_ _Kazuki is hoping to escape from the abnormalities that come with being aware of demons the best way he can think of: death. But while there are those who are more than happy to oblige in ending his life, there are those want to save him from making a grave mistake._

**X-X-X**

_#5: No Such Thing as Normal_

There once was a boy named Yohsuke Takeda. He was…something of a bully. But that aside, he was a normal boy with a normal family and a normal life…until he got to the 8th grade. That was when he got a temptaint. Kazuki had been there when it happened: a mere scratch from a tiny goblin was the demonic hindrance that led to him seeing the things he'd probably never wanted to see. And as bad as it sounded, he enjoyed seeing Takeda panic at the sight of coal tar floating about in the schoolyard, even as he blamed his punching bag _'Akumura'_ for doing something to him from several feet away somehow.

"_This is all your fault, Akumura, so fix it!"_

"_Fix? I don't know what you're talking about."_

"_These…__**things**__! Stop making me see these creepy things!"_

"_I dunno what you're talking about. Nothing's there, right?"_

The ordinary response—at least in Kazuki's weird world—to someone gaining the ability to see demons was to call the professionals: priests, monks, exorcists and such. But normal people—his parents, his friends, the school nurse—convinced Takeda it was all in his head. To them, it was the result of stress, or maybe spending too much time picking on the _'haunted'_ boy. So Takeda ignored the demons that would hassle him. When they would cause him to trip, or flinch, or bleed, he would say the cause was a bad case of klutziness or the jitters. In turn, Kazuki ignored Takeda. Fun as it was to watch them suffer, he wanted to find some semblance of normalcy in his life, and it wasn't _his_ responsibility to help some haunted person. Besides, maybe he _deserved_ being haunted himself.

"_Whoa, Yohsuke! You're bleeding!"_

"_Huh? O-oh. I didn't notice."_

"_Didn't notice? That thing's freaking huge! How could you __**not**__ notice it?! Come on, I'll walk you to the nurse's office to get that looked at."_

But then things became worse. Takeda's physical and mental health began to decline. He saw demons even when there weren't any. At times, Kazuki sometimes found him muttering how _'they'_ wouldn't get him if he wasn't alone. He was caught trying to stab out his eyes with a pencil, babbling about how they were the problem. After that, he stopped coming to school. The whispers amongst Kazuki's classmates were that he was getting professional help. Not exorcists, but therapy, drugs, and some made mention of electroshock therapy—the tools of people who couldn't and didn't want to believe the burden of a new reality that was placed on them, Kazuki guessed. Of course, to everyone else, he was just going insane.

"_Did you hear about Takeda-kun? I heard he was having health problems, so his parents pulled him out of school."_

"_**Health problems**__? They only said that because they were too embarrassed to admit that their son was nuts! The only health problems Takeda has are in his __**head**__!"_

"_I feel kind of bad for him. He's probably gonna stay back because of this."_

"_Staying back's the least of his worries! Besides, he kinda deserves it, don't you think? For always singling out Okumura since the beginning of middle school and calling him haunted!"_

"_Hey, you don't think it was Okumura-kun who…?"_

"_Please! He's weird, but that's all he is!"_

Months passed, and no mention of Yohsuke Takeda occurred until the month before summer vacation. It wasn't good news. According to the students at school, Takeda was found dead one morning. It appeared to be a suicide—death by pill overdose. Kazuki felt like they blamed him for what happened to Takeda, even if they weren't saying anything. And maybe it was somehow, for not doing anything. He wasn't fond of Takeda, and any sort of sadness he felt upon hearing of his suicide was likely one of the polite reflexes that he'd learned growing up—just like every other person in school.

But his death _had_ caused Kazuki to think and wonder… In a world where people like him desperately wanted to be normal, to not see or know about the kinds of monsters and demons that could literally be anything or anyone…was death the only release from abnormality? Was that the best option for people who couldn't stand to live in this kind of world? This kind of life?

"_This kind of world isn't for me…"_

**X-X-X**

Kazuki awoke to a splitting headache and the sensation of something wet touching his forehead. He found himself staring up at a middle-aged woman dressed in casual clothing. She looked a bit familiar. "…Masuda-sensei?" Masuda-sensei was his homeroom teacher in school—he recognized her by her blonde hair that she claimed was natural. He'd never seen her _outside_ of school before, or wearing something that wasn't a dress suit. At that moment, the teen realized with fright that his hands had been bound behind him. His surroundings looked like an empty and unfamiliar room, barren of everything but a large, red circle with a reverse pentagram painted on the floor and lit candles around it.

"Sensei? Is _that_ who this is?" Masuda slurred. "She was in such a sorry state, drunk and crying over some guy cheating on her. It was so easy to just _take_ her… B-but…she's still a bit tipsy…so forgive me if I—" The woman stumbled back a bit. "If I seem a bit off."

"…Are you Avnas?" Kazuki asked.

The blonde woman's expression became apathetic. "Makoto. My _name_ is Makoto!" She began kicking the boy in the ribs as she enunciated, "_Ma-ko-to_!" She breathed heavily and stood up on her wobbly legs. "…It was Azazel's dumb idea to go around by that name. Said no one would wanna make a deal for their soul with a _'Makoto'_… How was _I_ supposed to know that…that it was an _actual demon's name_?! Psssh…!"

The dark-haired boy stared in surprise. "You're…dead? So you're just a ghost?" It wasn't even a demon from Gehenna that he and his mother sold their souls to. Well, it was, but technically, it was a pissed off human being.

"HA!" Makoto held a hand to his head—or _her_ head, Kazuki wasn't sure anymore—and smiled bitterly. "I _wish_ I were just a ghost. Ghosts aren't made of fire! Ghosts don't risk burning away the hosts they possess! But eeeven in death, _nothing_ goes my way…!" The demon hiccupped. "I'm a _will-o-wisp_, unfortunately… Azazel said that it's all because of _where_ I died, not _how_! Can you believe that shit? I should've just overdosed in my room…"

Kazuki stared in confusion. There was that name again. "Azazel?"

"Speaking of that _prick_, I have to finish up the preparations for his _fancy-shmancy sacrifice_." Makoto walked off, out of the light and Kazuki's sight.

"A sacrifice? _Me_?" Not that it wasn't obvious. Kazuki was smack in the middle of the reverse pentagram, it seemed. Well…maybe he deserved it. He _did_ go in search of that demon for this reason. Still, he expected to be burned alive, not sacrificed to some other demon. Maybe if he was lucky, he wouldn't get put through that _'eternal suffering'_ his father had talked about. As he thought about it, Makoto made his way back over, holding what looked like a kitchen knife. "If I'm gonna be sacrificed, can I at least know what it's for?"

"AHA!" The demon gave a loud, high laugh. "Who do you think you are, lil' Satan shit? Sacrificial lambs don't get told what they're being sacrificed for! Besides, you _wanna_ die, right? Does it really matter why or how?" The demon to bent over the boy, the scent of alcohol still on his host's breath as he prepared to stab his sacrifice. "You'll soon be outta your misery—" In that instant, Kazuki seemed to break free of his bindings and slashed Makoto's host in the face. "AAAAHHHH! WHAT THE HELL?!" Makoto screamed, dropping the knife with a clatter before stumbling back, holding onto his face as he cried in pain. He peered between his fingers and noticed the pair of black dog ears on Kazuki's head. "You…dumb…_dog_…!" The heat in the room increased in seconds before Makoto's host lit up in flames.

**X-X-X**

"When I get my hands on that boy, I'm gonna _kill _him!" Rin growled to himself as he ran down the road with Kurikara on his back, wearing a coat over his home clothes. "Screw grounding. Screw being understanding. He'll have bruises until his fall semester starts!" He'd been seething since he left the house, but it was better than worrying about Kazuki's safety. If he worried about his son, Rin would wind up thinking about the somewhat depressing thing he said earlier about not caring about himself, or what sort of dangerous situation he was in. If he was angry, though, he was more focused on finding the boy…so he could wring his little neck.

A small part of him wished he had Kuro for transportation and backup, but he couldn't have someone spotting the cat sídhe in his transformed state. It also wouldn't do to leave Satori alone at home with no one to protect her—not when that dog of hers had disappeared into thin air the same time Kazuki had. Maybe if he was lucky, Ouji was with Kazuki. Then he'd have a better chance of being safe and sound…until _Rin_ got his hands on him.

Rin's thoughts of punishment were interrupted by the sound of an explosion. A far-off part of the neighborhood was lit up for a brief moment as flames rose up over roofs. People nearby were stopping to stare in awe, but the half-demon's only thought was to head in the direction of the fire. He could be there—both of them could be there. And when he was done kicking that demon's ass, Kazuki's would next.

**X-X-X**

Kazuki's body, piloted by an inugami, collapsed in the middle of an alleyway. The only buildings in the vicinity were shops that had closed for the day, so no one was around to see the damage that had been done to the boy. The dark-haired teen's exposed skin had burns and his clothes had been slightly burned from the exposure to Makoto's flames. Ouji whimpered a bit before closing his eyes. The inugami winced as the burns gradually healed. Soon, it didn't look like Kazuki had been through a fire…if you didn't pay attention to his clothes.

"_You dumb dog! That __**hurts**__! Get out of my body!"_ Speaking of the dark-haired teen, he'd been complaining and yelling at the inugami from the depths of his subconscious since his body had been possessed. Of course, Ouji didn't bother to listen to Kazuki's commands and began to make his way down the alley. The only thought on the inugami's mind was protecting his master and bringing him back home to safety. _"I understand protection's your thing, but I __**want**__ to die! Go protect Mom—she needs someone to look after her more than I do."_

The inugami's dog-like ears twitched and he stepped to the side. A second afterward, a knife went whizzing by his host's face, landing on the ground with a clank. Ouji looked over his shoulder and bared his teeth at Makoto. His host, Masuda-sensei, was in the same poor state as his last host and was gradually burning away. Her clothing, skin and hair had burnt away and her exposed muscle was beginning to blacken. Kazuki hoped that any trace of Masuda-sensei's soul was gone, because he wouldn't want her to be aware of what was happening to her body.

"You…_fucking mutt_!" The will-o-wisp hissed venomously. "I'm gonna burn away you _and_ that little Satan fucker! There'll be nothing left of EITHER OF YOU!" Makoto screamed. The flames surrounding Masuda-sensei's body engulfed her completely and burned away what was left of her body. Cinders and ash drifted in the air as Makoto's fiery form fully appeared. Kazuki was surprised to see that he looked like a teenager before his form suddenly morphed into one that resembled an actual raging fire floating in midair. A large demonic face appeared in the fire, mouth wide open as it roared loudly.

At the sight of the fire, Ouji's first reaction was to run _very_ far away. But as he turned, he found himself staring at the well-dressed man standing a few feet away from him. "You can't do _anything_ right, can you, Makoto?" Azazel asked. Makoto's only response was to scream and breathe fire. While Ouji ducked to the side to get away from the flames, the red-suited demon stayed where he was, the flames barely reaching him where he was. "You're nothing more than another mindless, violent ghost now, too wrapped up in their pain from life to enjoy the wonders of being a spirit. So sad…but not unexpected. I'm just surprised you endured for all these years."

"You…_promised_…! _His_ soul…! _Live_…again…!" The will-o-wisp spoke, his fragmented speech somehow managing to contain malice in his words. "I…get…_soul_!"

"Oh, Makoto. After all these years, you _still_ don't get it," the red-suited demon chuckled as he smiled. He held out his arms with a flourish "_This_ is your second life! Not life as a human, but as a _marvelous spirit_ unrestricted by the pains and flaws that come with being a flesh and bone creature!"

"_What_…?"

Azazel's smile faded. "You were _supposed_ to come to your senses and realize how much _better_ things are in your current state after having to interact with so many miserable humans. What's so good about living if there's nothing but pain before death?"

"_I… You…you…!"_ For a brief moment, the ghostly flame that was Makoto became small, his voice sounding pain. But only for a moment. "BASTAAAAARD!" Ouji scrambled to the side and clung to a wall in fear as a wave of flames rushed towards the smiling Azazel. But the dark-haired demon disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind Makoto. The will-o-wisp roared in anger, but before he could attack, Azazel raised a glowing hand and reached into the flames, grabbing onto the face in the center of the flames. Although it caused the dark-haired demon's clothing and skin to burn, in seconds, the flames quickly dispersed and Makoto shrank until he was a tennis ball-sized fireball with a pale white core in the clutches of the demon king of spirits.

"You're a failure—as a human _and_ a demon. Your only worth now is in being a meal for me."

"N-no! I…want…to live…! _Please_! I—!"

Makoto's sentence went unfinished as the demon king shoved the will-o-wisp into his mouth and swallowed. He breathed out smoke and licked his lips. "His soul had such a _foul_ taste. Now then, for something _actually_ worth my… Hm?" He then noticed that Kazuki, or rather Ouji, was running off down the alley again. "He thinks he can run just away? How adorably foolish."

"_DAMN IT! I can't even try and __**kill**__ myself without something __**weird**__ going on!"_ Kazuki complained within his subconscious while Ouji whimpered pitifully. _"What's wrong with you? Are you afraid of being eaten? Here's your chance to leave then."_ The Ouji pinning down Kazuki in his subconscious crouched and licked the boy's face. _"…Dumb dog. I thought you understood that this world isn't for me."_

Just as Ouji was about to reach the end of the alley, Azazel landed in front of the possessed boy. The inugami's first reaction was to claw the dark-haired demon's throat, but he caught Kazuki's arm and, with ease, twisted it in a painful manner. Ouji yelped in pain and a second after that, Azazel slipped a glowing hand into Kazuki's body.

"Let's get rid of the unwanted guest..." When he pulled his hand back out, the red-suited demon was holding a small, black soul with a wispy tail. The dog ears on Kazuki's head disappeared and he was back in control of his body…and as a result, he felt the pain of having a broken arm. It didn't help that Azazel was still holding onto said arm and still had it twisted in that uncomfortable position.

"Let me go, you creep! Who the hell do you think you are?!" Of course, Kazuki could tell _what_ the man was. He doubted any human being would be unfazed about getting burned or be able to pull a demon out of someone with their own hand.

"I am Azazel. I suppose you know who I am?"

"…You're the demon I was supposed to be sacrificed to. Are you…here to take my soul?"

Azazel smiled. "Indeed. I'm sure one such as yourself who detests the world of the living is looking forward to it—though I'm sad to say that where _you're_ going, you won't have much freedom. Actually, you won't have any!"

"I don't care what you do to me. Just leave my dog alone."

The demon king arched an eyebrow. "Oh? I'm surprised you care about this creature when it's technically a curse."

Truth be told, Kazuki was surprised that he cared, either. The inugami was the sort of thing that he tried to avoid since entering into middle school. It was the root of his mother's pain, in a way. But he also saved her life, even though her ancestor was the one who sealed him into servitude, and he bothered to follow Kazuki for some reason. "He's just a dumb dog! Now just kill me and get it over with!" The dark-haired boy snapped.

Azazel's hand glowed a bit as he raised it. Before he could plunge the hand into the boy, a gunshot sounded in the alleyway and the demon king was shot in the back of his arm. Although he didn't cry out in pain, he flinched and let go of both Kazuki and Ouji. "Well…I was wondering if he'd _ever_ show," he muttered under his breath. Azazel turned around to look at Rin, who was still aiming a handgun at the demon. "Hello, bastard! I was just making a deal with—"

His sentence went unfinished as Rin cocked the gun. Kazuki immediately hid in the entrance of a closed store nearby to avoid the gunfire and stared in horror as bullets went through the demon. One bullet even went through the back of his_ head_. Kazuki would've raised his hands to cover his mouth in horror, but his broken arm prevented him from doing so.

Despite that, Azazel was still standing. His skin began to darken, his clothes ripped as he started to grow abnormally tall, and his voice sounded deeper as he spoke, "How rude! I hadn't finished speaking yet!" Rin stared in surprise, to which the demon laughed as thick black hair grew all over his body. "I suppose those were for _'Avnas'_, right? Compared to that pitiful soul, I'm a _god_!" Azazel shouted as his face began to morph and stretch forward until it resembled a goat's. Three horns grew out of his head: two long, goat-like ones and a third in the middle that suddenly lit on fire on its own. "I, Azazel, will take your wretched soul! I'll try not to destroy your body, for Lord Satan's sake," The goat-headed demon announced.

Rin holstered the gun and grabbed hold of Kurikara's hilt. "_'Azazel'_, huh? You look like any other Baphomet to me." He drew his sword and got into a fighting stance as his body became ablaze with blue flames. "Doesn't matter who you are, 'cuz you're not TAKING HIM!"

The half-demon roared as he swung his sword, sending a wave of blue fire flying towards the goat-headed demon. In defense, the Baphomet created a barrier with a reversed pentagram in front of him, blocking most of the flames. The demon looked up in time to see Rin jumping down from above, aiming to slash him in half. The Baphomet raised its hands and clapped them together to stop the blade. Before the flames could spread all over the goat-headed demon, he threw Rin back, but the half-demon managed to land on his feet.

Kazuki slowly poked his head out from his hiding spot and stared as the demon that called itself Azazel raised a hand and traced another reverse pentagram in the air with fire. Shadowy arms came flying out grabbed hold of Rin's throat, arms and legs. "Okay… They're both distracted with each other right now." Rin roared and the blue flames surrounding him increased in size. The shadowy hands immediately let go, and those that weren't immediately burned away were retreating back into the pentagram they came from. "I might be able to leave without them noticing me…" Of course, when the boy tried to make himself move, he found he was unable to: not because he was worried about the massive, goat-headed demon, but because he felt like he wouldn't be able to outrun his dad.

Rin charged towards the barrier and struck it with a forward thrust of his sword. The Baphomet flinched and raised both hands in front of it. To Kazuki, the demon appeared to be physically struggling as if trying to hold the barrier up. Blue fire snaked around the barrier and the Baphomet gave what sounded like a bleat of fear. The shadowy hands appeared once again, but they burned away in seconds. With a shout from Rin, Kurikara pierced through the barrier, making it crack, then shatter in an explosion of blue fire. The Baphomet stumbled back, looking more terrified of Rin than it had at the beginning. It then happened to glance in Kazuki's direction, and the boy felt like he knew what the demon was thinking.

"Do it," the teen muttered to himself, gripping onto his broken arm tightly.

The Baphomet raised a hand and began to run towards the boy when Kurikara's blade stabbed through its stomach. Rin closed his eyes and faintly mumbled, "I'm sorry," to the demon's host before slicing up towards the chest.

The Baphomet bellowed in pain as balls of light came flying out of the laceration. Some floated up to the sky and faded way while others flew off into other parts of True Cross Town and even farther out of the city. The goat-headed demon stared in anger. "My…souls…! You _bastard_! I'll KILL—" The Baphomet combusted in blue flames before it could finish and burned away.

"They weren't yours to begin with, ya damn goat…" Rin muttered. He looked at Kazuki and the first things he noticed were the burnt state of his clothes and the way he was holding his arm. "Are you okay? It didn't hurt you, did it?" The half-demon asked as he stepped towards his son.

"Stay away from me! Don't even think about touching me!" Kazuki snapped as he glared at the blue-haired man.

Rin paused and for a moment, he felt his son thought the worst of him. Then he convinced himself that it had to have been his appearance that was unsettling, so he sheathed Kurikara and returned to normal. "I'm sorry you had to see all of that. But it'll be fine now."

"It's _not_ fine!" The teen shouted. "I _wanted_ him to kill me! I would've been dead by now if _you_ and that _dumb dog_ hadn't shown up and ruined it!" Ouji, who'd been hiding in a trash can, poked his head out at the mention of him and whimpered.

The concern Rin had felt was soon replaced by annoyance. "What is _wrong_ with you?! Do you hate me that much now that you wanna _die_ just to get away from me?!"

"How fucking conceited _are_ you?! You being Satan's child and Mom making deals with demons is just _icing_ on the goddamned _abnormal_ cake that is my life! I hate having to put up with demons, and ghosts, and exorcists and anything related to them! I don't wanna have to go through life just trying to _ignore_ this crap, wondering if and when a demon's gonna kill me! I don't wanna _plunge_ into this stuff like you and Uncle Yukio just so I can do what it takes to survive! I wanna be _normal_, damn it, but I can't because I'm _your_ son!" Kazuki paused and began to breathe heavily. "…I wanna die so I won't have to deal with _any_ of that crap again…!"

Rin looked taken aback for a brief moment before he snapped, "You think I _want_ you to go through any of that?! You think your _mother_ wants that for you?! If we lied to you, it wasn't just because we were afraid of what you'd think of us! We wanted to live like a _normal_ family, and we wanted you to be like a normal kid! We didn't want you to feel burdened because of crap neither of us could control! And I'm sorry that you blame us for your life not being _'normal'_, but if you think you can escape it by dying, then you're an idiot!"

"I don't wanna—!"

"You don't wanna be different! You know how many people who wind up getting temptaints think that?! How many people who are _born_ into exorcist families wish they were normal?! You're not the only person who's felt like this and you're not the only one who's felt like dying's the only way out! Even I've…felt like that…sometimes." The son stared at his father a few seconds before Rin's features softened a bit and he forced himself to smile. "But if you stick around long enough, your old man will make it so that this sort of stuff doesn't happen anymore. I guarantee that!"

Kazuki frowned. "Shut up! Don't say things like that like it's easy! What makes you think you'll be able to do _anything_?!"

"I just _will_! Have faith in me and I'll be able to succeed!"

"Quit talking like you're some hero outta a boy's manga! You're too old for that shit!"

Rin's smile faded. "…Seriously, though. I don't know what the future could hold anymore than you do. As much as this may suck to hear…don't you think it's worth putting up with the weird stuff—including your family—to see where things could go?"

Kazuki bit his lower lip. "I…I just…wanna be normal…"

"…Yeah. I do, too." The blue-haired man reached forward and patted his son on the shoulder. "Let's go home. Consider yourself grounded for the rest of your life for this." Kazuki wasn't sure if he was being serious, joking, or was still upset over what Kazuki had tried to do. Either way, he didn't say a word and just nodded. "Oh, and apologize to the dog," Rin said, nodding his head in Ouji's direction. "You'd probably have been killed before I could find you if it wasn't for him."

The teen and the inugami stared at each other for a few seconds before Kazuki mumbled, "I'm sorry, Ouji." The ghost dog barked before jumping into Kazuki's body and possessing him. _"What the hell are you—?!"_ The first thing he did was fix Kazuki's arm, which was accompanied by a yelp of pain and a somewhat sickening cracking noise as the bone mended. _"OW! You dumb dog! That's not painless!"_ The inugami then ran off down the alleyway with his master's body.

Rin stared for a few seconds before sighing. "Wait, does that dog even know the way home? Hey, don't just run off! Wait up!" He called after the inugami as he ran after his possessed son, unaware of the person watching from above amidst the fleeing souls.

"An excellent performance, as expected. My dear half-brother never ceases to entertain me!" Mephisto said with a smile as he clapped to himself, floating in the sky in his lounge seat. "Even when the rules of the game changed, he managed to win!" The look in his eyes became sharp, but he continued smiling. "That makes two wins for _me_, and zero for _you_, Azazel."

The person he was talking to wasn't so much a person, but a small plush doll that resembled a cute white Baphomet and was sitting on the arm of the seat. "No, it isn't," a man's voice came from the doll. "For the first bet, we said that you would win if the bastard was able to prevent his wife's soul from being taken. He didn't. For the second bet, we said that you would win if the boy didn't give his soul to Leonard. He didn't stop of his own accord."

"_But_! The conditions for _your_ victory was for your servants to collect their souls. Since neither occurred, we can call this a tie." Not really. As far as Mephisto was concerned, his satisfaction with the results showed who the winner was. "I must say, Young Okumura's intervening was unexpected, but entertaining regardless." To be honest, he had been hoping for the event to end _differently_, for the boy who tried to escape reality to be forced to _embrace_ it due to…_reasons_ other than parental care.

"Unexpected? I don't believe you. In the past, you only ever agreed to play games with me when you knew things went your way, you…_cheater_." Which made him wonder why, after all these centuries, he would suggest a bet in the first place. Maybe the hope that for once, Samael would have to rely on chance alone instead rather than knowing how something would turn out? As the humans said: when pigs fly.

The purple-haired demon grabbed the demon-possessed doll by one of its horns and held it out in front of him, making an expression of mock hurt. "Cheater? How rude! I'm merely a better gamesman than you. If anything, _you're_ the cheater here, going after the boy when you _specifically_ said that all you wanted was the woman."

"The first bet ended, so what I did with him didn't count. And you knew I'd do it anyway. Why else would you pop up and make that wager just before that will-o-wisp screwed things up? Plus, the boy wanted to die, and I'm sure he still does." People like him always pretended that a little talk with someone made them reconsider life before they offed themselves. That's what happened to Makoto. "Deal or no, I'll be able to get his soul eventually, I'm sure."

"Really?" Mephisto brought the doll up closer to his smirking face. "Care to bet on it?" Azazel remained silent. His doll host shook and tore at the seams before a thick white mist came out of it and floated away from the demon king of time, who didn't seem to mind the other demon's leaving. "Hm. A poor loser as always…but he managed to give me a means of entertainment." He looked down at the specks on the ground that were Rin and Kazuki, the former dragging his son along while the ghostly dog followed behind. "And who knows what sorts of roads have opened up now as a result of this little game?" Mephisto laughed to himself as he bridged his fingers together. "Ah, the possibilities…!"

**X-X-X**

**Side-notes:** Inspired by the real life phenomena, will-o-wisps—at least in this fan fiction—are what happen when a ghost is formed in areas with similar gases to swamps and marshes, somehow causing them to gain a fiery form.

Azazel is noted for having a relation to goats. Baphomet is a goat-headed deity worshipped as an idol and associated with witches, and Leonard is a three-horned goat demon from the book the _"Dictionnaire Infernal"_ who is thought to have an association with Azazel and Baphomet.

And I still cannot write Mephisto for crap…


	6. Well, Maybe This is Our Normal

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Blue Exorcist series. Only this fic._

_Chapter Summary: If there's one thing people who've experienced what their family has seen have learned, it's to cherish those moments of relative normalcy.  
><em>

**X-X-X**

**Die Happy**

_#6: Well…Maybe This is Our Normal_

"What _happened_ to you?!" Satori shouted the moment Rin and Kazuki came through the front door. The dark-haired woman was immediately off the couch and hovering over her son like a mother hen. "Look at your clothes! What on earth happened?!"

"Demons," Kazuki spoke flatly.

"Demons? As in _plural_?! Like, more than one?!"

"Yes."

Satori looked at Rin. She mouthed, "What the hell happened?" and he mouthed, "Later," in response. She looked back at Kazuki and took note of the listless look in his eyes. Clearing her throat, Satori tugged at his burned shirt and said, "Why don't you go upstairs and change into something else? You shouldn't eat dinner looking like that."

"Mm-hm." The teenager went upstairs silently. At the top of the stairs, he glanced over his shoulder at his parents for a moment before he went around the corner.

"What the _hell_ happened? Why does he _look_ like that? Did he get hurt?!" Satori spoke at an increasing volume.

"He's _not_ hurt." As far as Rin knew, Ouji healed any sort of injuries Kazuki had when he possessed the boy. "And as for what happened… You really wanna know?" After looking at his wife's worried expression, he quickly added, "Nothing bad happened _to_ him, but…let's just say that I've…learned some things about Kazuki. You…might want to sit down for this…"

And so, Rin explained to his wife about Kazuki's feelings. Her response was as he expected it would be. "He _hates_ us…!" Satori whimpered and shuddered as she buried her face into her hands. "He hates himself because he hates _us_!"

"H-he probably doesn't hate _us_! Just the circumstances about…being related to us!" Rin attempted to convince her as well as himself. It'd be nicer if the blame wasn't related to them in some way, though. "Kazuki's just confused…and angry…and depressed. He'll come around…eventually. We just have to be supportive and caring until he can get over it, right?"

Satori nodded and sniffled. "I just want him to feel better…"

The sound of their son coming down the stairs made them both still. Kazuki stopped and stared at the backs of their heads, wondering if they were talking about him. "…I'm ready."

"Yes, and you look much better now," said his mother as she stood up. "Why don't you follow his example, Rin?"

"Huh? O-oh, right! I need to go and change! Don't start without me, okay?" His father spoke as he stood up and walked past him.

Kazuki stared at the floor before he made his way over to the table and sat down. He focused on the food in front of him that, more than likely, had gone cold minutes ago, but he could feel his mother's eyes on him. Satori continued staring until she was unable to control herself. The dark-haired woman approached her son from behind his chair and hugged him.

"I'm so happy that you're okay," Satori whispered into his ear before giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I don't know what I'd do if something bad happened to you because of me…"

Kazuki wanted to apologize. He wanted to say how he was sorry for being a troublesome son, for hating her, and for everything else that had happened in these last two days. But all he could do was start crying. Why couldn't his parents be angry and berate him like _normal_ parents…instead of being so nice and accepting? It just made him hate himself more. Satori just stood there holding him, not commenting at all.

Rin watched the scene from up on the stairs with a smile before he walked down. "Alright! Let's eat!" The moment he announced his presence, Satori let go of Kazuki and his son began to wipe the tears out of his eyes. "Finally, a nice family dinner," Rin said as he sat down next to Satori.

"I'm so happy! Nothing compares to your cooking, honey! You even made gyu-katsu for me~!" The woman spoke cheerily as she clapped her hands.

"Of course! I wouldn't make something subpar for you on your first night back," the blue-haired man said with a smile before leaning over to kiss his blushing wife while Kazuki watched. It sometimes amazed Rin how easily they could go back to acting like most couples, but he was also grateful for that. He watched as Kazuki hesitantly nibbled one of the breaded beef slices. "Be sure to eat everything. You won't get big and strong like your old man if you don't," Rin teased.

Kazuki sniffed as he took another bite of food. "I'd need _steroids_ to be as freakishly strong as _you_ are..." Good. He wasn't so depressed that it stopped him from being snarky. "Not that I'd _wanna_ be."

"Right! Focus on learning to cook! That's the only thing your father's really good at, anyway," Satori commented as she ate her beef.

"Say _what_?!" Rin exclaimed, looking at his wife. "That's a joke, isn't it?!"

"Of course, dear! You have _other_ talents, like doing laundry and cleaning the house."

"In other words, he's a servant," their son commented bluntly, causing Satori to giggle and Rin to huff in annoyance.

"Yeah, well, your servant'll bust your ass for as long as you're being punished," the half-demon muttered.

"Which is…?"

"Forever." His wife kicked him in the shin from under the table. "Ow! Fine, how about until I die?"

"Are you saying I can wish for you to die?" Kazuki asked with his mouth full.

"You can, but I will _never_ die. And would it kill you to not talk with your mouth full?"

For the first time in a long while, the tension in their house was dying down to a point of normalcy. It might take a while for things to get back to normal between the three of them, but it wasn't that important right now. What mattered was that they were starting to feel like a family again.

**X-X-X**

A few days later, Rin found himself inside of Mephisto's office again, to his discontent. It was mainly because the purple-haired demon spoke of "owing favors" on the phone, and while the half-demon wanted to ignore Mephisto, his constant emoticon-riddled texts were annoying enough to make Rin bend to the older demon's desires. As a result, he found himself buying a _very_ expensive body pillow of with an image of some cute anime girl on it.

"Here's your frigging pillow," the blue-haired man growled as he tossed the pillow at the demon king. It was stopped in midair by some unseen and made to land carefully into Mephisto's arms with a snap. "_Satisfied_?"

Going into full otaku mode, Mephisto gave a stupid smile and began to grip the pillow in its plastic wrapping. "Ah, Mio Onishi-chan~! How wonderful it is to see your beauty beyond a computer screen!" He gushed and blushed over the piece of merchandise. Then, with a snap of his fingers, it was gone—most likely in his residence with other so-called valuables just like it. It just made Rin angrier seeing that, wondering what was the point of spending _any_ money on it—either Rin's _or_ Mephisto's—if he could just _bring_ _it_ to him.

"Great, you got your pillow." Even if he didn't _deserve_ it—not when his advice was something Rin could've thought of himself even in a state of rage. But if wasting all that money on a pillow meant his half-brother didn't have to barrage him with texts, so be it. "Favor repaid. Now I'm going home. _Goodbye_."

"Actually," Mephisto began just as Rin turned on his heel to leave the room, "there is more I wish to discuss with you." Rin turned back around, but still stood near the door. "How's the family?"

The half-demon blinked. "Excuse me?"

"How is your family?" He repeated, leaning forward with a look of interest. "How _are_ dear Satori-san and Kazuki-kun?"

"They're fine," Rin answered curtly. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, not only because he didn't want to be in Mephisto's company outside of exorcist-related affairs, but because he had to go grocery shopping as soon as possible to get a good deal on the stuff he needed to make dinner tonight.

"I'm sure they've been going through some major crises lately," the demon king began to hold up his fingers, "Your wife fell ill, a demon attempted to take her soul, your son made a deal with a demon…"

Surprise reflected in Rin's eyes as Mephisto counted off. Then that surprise turned to anger. In seconds, he was at the older demon's desk, slamming his hand down in anger. "What did you _do_?! I swear, if you had a hand in this, I'll—!"

"Oh, honestly! Must you _always_ presume the worst of me? All I did was observe from the audience," the purple-haired demon spoke nonchalantly as he bridged his fingers together. "And I must say I was _somewhat_ pleased by the results. It would be a tragedy if Satori-san lost her life for a petty demon's, and a shame for Kazuki-kun to die before his potential is revealed."

"You _are_ responsible, then."

"I _said_ that I was an observer. _Pay attention_."

"I don't care _what_ you were doing, the fact is that you _knew_ about this. And if you try to make my family into playthings for _your_ entertainment…!"

"You'll do _what_, exactly? Kill me?" The demon king of time chuckled to himself as he leaned back into his seat. "No need to worry. I wouldn't ever _dream_ of harming my dear nephew and his mother. Why would I? _She's_ barely a nuisance to me, while _he_…well, as I said, it'd be a shame if Kazuki-kun died before his potential is revealed."

"Just stay away from them!" Rin snapped as he made for the door.

"Of course. They're family after all. And one must _never_ forget whom one's family is."

Rin slammed the door behind him after leaving the office. He muttered, "I wish I _could_ forget who my family was. Or at least the undesirable parts that I'm related to…"

**X-X-X**

Much later in the afternoon, in a break room in the back of a café, Kazuki was crouching down in the middle of the room, dressed in his work uniform: a black vest with a white dress shirt, black pants and a small black apron. "You…are a _bad dog_," He spoke flatly as he glared at Ouji, who was sitting in front of him with an innocent expression. The teen held out an empty bento box. "You see this? I bought this from the bento shop down the street. I treated myself to an okonomiyaki bento. But you would know what it is because _you ate it_! You pig! You pig in dog's clothing!" Kazuki began to hit the inugami over the head with the empty bento. "Bad dog! _Bad dog_! What made you think that I got this for _you_?!"

"Okumura-kun." A man's voice caused the teen to suddenly stop his hand in midair. He looked over his shoulder and saw his boss standing in the doorway. "What are you doing?"

"…Having lunch."

"Don't you mean dinner?"

"It was _meant_ to be lunch." Kazuki's stomach growled loudly and he blushed in embarrassment. "Um, I…!"

"Sounds like you need more than one of those, huh? Anyway, you're still on shift. Make your time count."

Kazuki stood up and left the break room, muttering, "Yes, sir," as he stepped back into the storefront. Around this time of day, the amount of customers who came into the shop dwindled. With less customers to deal with, as well as there being less than 30 minutes left on the clock, it wouldn't be long until he was able to eat. Ouji sat down next to Kazuki and the teen lightly kicked the ghost dog as vengeance for his food.

A few minutes passed before a customer entered. Unfortunately, it was the last person Kazuki wanted to see. Rin approached the counter nonchalantly, completely ignored his son's surprised expression. "Hey. Still working?"

"What does it _look_ like? Why are you even here?" The dark-haired teen grumbled.

"I figured I'd pick you up so we could go home together."

One of Kazuki's eyes twitched. "It's bad enough that you gave me a _curfew_, but picking me up from work?! Do you know how much you're embarrassing me right now?!" He hissed at his father. No reason for his boss to hear and think he wasn't being a good little employee.

Rin arched an eyebrow and looked around the empty café. "Who am I embarrassing you in front of?" Kazuki almost wanted to count Ouji, but his pride wouldn't let him say something so stupid. "Whatever. If you're not finished yet, I'll just sit and wait for you. You're done by 6, right? Nothing oughta go bad by then…"

"You can't sit here without buying something," the boy spoke as he pointed at a little sign on the countertop that said the same thing. "So buy something or leave."

"Alright, alright. Uh…" The half-demon took out his wallet and began counting the amount of money he had left. "Um…I don't have enough for coffee. Can I have a family discount?"

"_No_. Buy a pastry then," the son spoke flatly.

"Geez, you're mean! You're worse than your uncle!" Rin whined. He stared at the glass case containing the remaining pastries for the day before looking at Kazuki. "What do you rec—?" Before he finished his question, Kazuki had already pushed a turnover on a paper napkin towards him.

"Gimme the money." Rin did so without a word, then he picked up the turnover and headed over to a table near the door to sit down and eat. Kazuki glared at the blue-haired man for a few minutes before the chiming of the opening entrance made him look towards the approaching customer. It was a woman dressed in a pantsuit, wearing a surgical mask over her mouth. Green-eyed coal tar lazily floated around her head. Kazuki found himself staring at the coal tar for a few seconds before he heard the muffled sound of the woman growling behind her mask. "Good afternoon, ma'am. How may I help you?"

"Irish coffee. To go," she spoke, sounding annoyed with Kazuki already. Ouji was growling and poking half of his body through the front counter to look at the coal tar. It agitated the coal tar, but the woman didn't seem to notice him. Either she was used to such sights or she didn't have a temptaint yet.

"Yes, ma'am." The dark-haired boy immediately turned his back on the woman and began preparing her drink, trying to put the tiny decay demons in the shop far from his mind.

He was supposed to be giving the world a chance, trying to see the brighter side to life in a world where demons lurked about, but he honestly…found it difficult to find a brighter side when things like this happened often. It was enough to make the teen wonder if the problem wasn't with the world but with himself. Of course, he wouldn't _dare_ tell his parents that after what happened days ago. He was sure they already thought he was crazy, even if they never said a word indicating those thoughts. He didn't want to worry them anymore than he had.

A coal tar separated itself from the rest of its kin and, attracted to the teen's darker thoughts, began hovering in front of his face. Kazuki contemplated squishing it, but decided not to risk any part of it going into the woman's coffee. He allowed the tiny demon to continue drifting around him as he turned to give her the coffee in exchange for her money. He stared as she slipped the straw up under her mask to sip the drink, the coal tar hovering close to the opening. "Thank you very much, ma'am! I hope you enjoy it!" Kazuki spoke in a fake and chipper tone.

The woman stopped drinking her Irish coffee to murmur something that sounded like "Thanks" before she turned to leave. The moment she and her cloud of demons were out the door, Kazuki snatched the coal tar in the air and crushed it in the palm of his hand. He barely made eye contact with Rin before he wiped the demon's remnants off on a towel. The boy still felt his father's eyes on him as the next customer came in.

**X-X-X**

After a long and unbearably quiet car ride, Rin and Kazuki arrived at home. Before his father could tell him to help with the groceries, the teen got out of the car and went into the house. "Mom, you won't believe what your husband did!" The half-demon heard from out in the car.

Rin shook his head and sighed as he got out of the car. "First thing he does is go running to his mother to complain. I didn't even _do_ anything!" He managed to pick up all of the groceries on his own and walk in through the open door. "Hey, Satori! I got everything you asked me to get and…then some?" Rin almost felt his arms go slack as he saw Satori standing sheepishly next to the table, on top of which was a cake. Kazuki was standing a few feet away with a surprised expression. "Where…did you get that cake?"

"What? You don't think I _made_ it?" Satori asked with a huff.

Rin approached the table and looked the cake over. It was covered in frosting and decorated with little balloons and party hats on top with the words "Happy Birthday" spelled out in capital letters. "Honestly? This looks like the sort of thing you'd pick up last minute at a grocery store…" He noticed his wife flinching. "Even though I told you to _stay at home_ and _relax_."

"I got bored of relaxing after my first day back from the hospital. So I decided to do something nice for Kazuki. You know, since his last birthday turned out poorly." Rin glowered, causing Satori to flinch once more. "No offense, dear."

"None taken. But _this one_," the blue-haired man pointed at their son, "says he doesn't like cake."

Satori blinked and stared at Kazuki. "Since when do you not like cake?"

"I…like cake…I just…" Kazuki trailed off as his words became quieter.

His mother smiled before reaching over to her husband and attempting to take the grocery bags from him. "Now, lemme just—"

"Hey, hey, hey! _I'll_ put these away! You busy yourself with whatever you have left to do," Rin spoke as he entered the kitchen with Satori. "You're stupidly bold, aren't you? Or boldly stupid…"

"I wanted to do something special for him. Is that so wrong?" The dark-haired woman asked as she began to search the kitchen drawers.

"If you wanted to give him a cake, just ask _me_ to make it. Don't risk getting yourself sick again!"

"I'm feeling better than you think I am, Rin. I'm well enough to go shopping for a cake."

"Hmph! That's what you say until you faint from exhaustion or something."

Satori gave her husband a skeptical look. "What're you gonna do when I go back to work on Monday? Lock me up in our room?"

The half-demon sighed before he resumed putting away the groceries. "Suddenly no one wants me to worry about them. What a family…"

"You're being more of a worrywart than Yukio these days," Satori grumbled with her arms folded across her chest.

"I am _not_!" Rin snapped. He looked over his shoulder to glare at his wife. "I'm allowed to be a little protective after what happened, don't you think?!"

"Yeah, well…there's such a thing as _suffocating_ the people you're protective of. Ah, found the candles!" The dark-haired woman announced as she left the room. A few seconds later, she came back, grabbed Rin by the arm and pulled him out of the kitchen. "Groceries can wait. Birthday cake now." Satori pulled Rin over to the table and began placing candles on the birthday cake. Kazuki was already sitting down at the table with Kuro on his shoulder and Ouji beside his seat. The teen had a blank look in his eyes and was staring down at his hands resting on his lap. When the dark-haired woman was finished putting all the candles she had on the cake, she scurried off to the kitchen once more, probably to find something to light them.

"I'm surprised you haven't run off to your room yet," Rin spoke as he shoved his hands into his pants pockets. Kazuki remained silent and began playing with the sleeves of his shirt. "I don't care if you ran off from the party I gave you, but if you do or say anything to hurt your mother's feelings, I'll do worse than ground you."

"You cared," Kazuki grumbled. "And…I'm sorry…if I hurt your feelings." He spoke shyly. He then quickly added, "Even though I told you _not_ to—!"

"Huh?! You apologized?!" Rin shouted with a shocked expression.

"Don't sound so surprised! I'm only sorry for hurting your feelings! I said I didn't want a party!"

Rin pursed his lips. "You never said anything like that." As his son growled under his breath, the half-demon moved in closer to the teen and patted him on the head. "But I understand why you were upset. It doesn't feel like a birthday without Mom around to help celebrate, does it?" Kazuki fell silent and began staring at the cake as his dad continued, "Though why she couldn't have just asked _me_ to make the cake, I don't understand…"

"Found the matches!" Satori exclaimed as she came out of the kitchen again. She approached the cake and began lighting the candles, humming all the while. When she was finished, she smiled at her family. "Okay! Time to make a wish and blow out the candles!"

Kazuki stared at his parents with reddened cheeks for a few seconds before he took a deep breath and blew out the candles. "Can we eat the cake now?"

"No. We can have it after _dinner_," Rin pointed out. "Which I should've started by now. Just lemme put away the groceries first and then I'll get started."

"I'll help. I'm not taking _'no'_ for an answer," said Satori.

"Just make something soon, okay? I'm hungry and I wanna eat as soon as possible," Kazuki groaned, holding onto his stomach.

"If you want a _quality_ dinner, then sit down and be patient," said Rin.

"I don't want quality. I just want to eat."

"You'll get quality and _like_ it. C'mon, Tori." The half-demon grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her along into the kitchen.

Kazuki sighed and slumped back into his chair. He reached a hand out and began playing with one of the candles on top of the cake. "I wish things would just be normal…one day." Until then, he supposed he'd have to take the little bits of normalcy he got with his family. They were probably the only highlight of his short life, after all…

"Will you just let me—?!"

"No, you can just—!"

"Stop arguing and cook something, I'm wasting away!" Kuro meowed and Ouji barked. "I mean, _we're_ wasting away! Wait, you ate my lunch! And you're _dead_! You shouldn't be complaining about food, you bottomless pit!"

Though if _these_ are his life's highlights, just how good _is_ it…?

**X-X-X**

**Side notes: **Gyu-katsu ("beef cutlet") is a variant of the breaded and deep-fried tonkatsu ("pork cutlet"). Okonomiyaki is a savory pan-fried batter cake made with a variety of ingredients.

**X-X-X**

**An anticlimactic ending compared to the last chapter, but it wasn't meant to be mind-blowing anyway. Here's hoping that you guys who bothered reading this story enjoyed. There may likely not be a sequel, but for now, I'm gonna bath in the afterglow of the fact that I finished a multi-chapter Blue Exorcist fic.**


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